Intra-Party Conflict and Electoral Violence in Ekiti State: Patterns and Management Strategies

This study examines the patterns and management strategies associated with intra-party conflict and its links to electoral violence in Ekiti State, South West Nigeria. Intra-party conflicts over candidate selection, resource distribution, and factional leadership have increasingly been identified as primary drivers of electoral violence in Nigerian politics, as excluded party members mobilise external violence in response to perceived unfair primary processes. Using a mixed-methods research design, quantitative data were collected from 200 registered party members and civil society electoral observers in Ado-Ekiti, Ikere, and Ikole local government areas through structured questionnaires, supplemented by qualitative interviews with party officials, INEC officers, and electoral violence victims. The theoretical framework draws from intra-party conflict theory and electoral violence frameworks. Findings reveal that grievances arising from non-compliance with party primary guidelines, imposition of candidates, and financial exclusion from campaign processes are the strongest predictors of post-primary electoral violence in Ekiti State. Party faction leaders' capacity to mobilise youth groups for retaliatory violence is identified as the direct mechanism linking intra-party grievance to electoral violence. Recommendations include strengthening INEC's oversight of party primaries, developing binding inter-party and intra-party conflict management protocols, establishing pre-primary party grievance resolution mechanisms, and prosecuting primary election dispute instigators to establish deterrence. Keywords: intra-party conflict, electoral violence, Ekiti State, political parties, elections.