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This paper analyses the impact of household food insecurity on electoral participation in 30 sub-Sahara African countries with the aid of micro-level data drawn from the sixth round of the Afrobarometer survey. Estimates from logistic regression indicate that being food insecure reduces the likelihood of electoral participation by 7%. Notably, results from the endogenous binaryvariable regression, which controlled for potential reverse causality, confirm that household food insecurity is a crucial driver of voter turnout in sub-Saharan Africa. Further analysis reveals that voting behaviour was much higher and statistically significant amongst voters who were intermittently food insecure than those that were always food insecure. Finally, it appears that turnout at national elections depends mostly on the severity of food insecurity. Therefore, it can be argued that the implementation of policies aimed at stemming household food insecurity could play an essential role in increasing voter turnout. 1 | INTRODUCTION Democracy is the most popular form of government in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Nevertheless, the political system is generally at its nascent stage in most of the 46 countries in the region. Unlike other types of government, democracy enables eligible voters to choose their representatives through periodic elections. The elected representatives then formulate public policies and perform oversight functions over the implementation of programs, even as they establish mechanisms for measuring the effectiveness of these policies and programs. A common ground through which elected representatives or a government might be voted out of office is if their policies and programs failed to produce effective results wherever it matters to the electorate. One such issue is household food security, which "exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life" (FAO, 1996). However, the converse is widespread in SSA. FAO, IFAD, WHO, WFP, and UNICEF (2019) revealed that more than half of the region's population experienced one form of food insecurity or the other in 2018. It is worth noting that household food insecurity is as much an income-related problem, as it is a political one with far-reaching consequences on sustainable development (

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