Election violence in the Philippines

A new report published in Pacific Affairs, co-authored by Dr Tom Smith, Principal Lecturer in International Relations and Terrorism, investigates election violence in the Philippines. It is the first academic research published on the issue in 23 years and with new elections taking place next year, the research suggests they could be the bloodiest ever.

In a new podcast, Dr Smith examines the increasing violence, the armed groups involved and murky role of state security forces across the massacres of journalists, assassinations of candidates and attacks on voters and campaign groups.

In a fascinating discussion, Dr Smith says election violence in the Philippines has worsened since 2004, contrary to claims by the government and previous research. This violence is largely perpetrated by unidentified assassins and fruitful investigations are rare as it is hard to monitor because it falls between the cracks of various international election monitoring initiatives.