We study how antipersonnel landmines thwart the consolidation of post-conflictdemocracy. We do so by exploiting the randomness in the timing of landmine explosionsrelative to election days, comparing the electoral outcomes of voting polls located close toa pre-election explosion with those near a post-election blast. We show that landmine explosions are salient stimuli that produce fear, reducing political participation. While theturnout reduction persists over time and takes place across the ideological spectrum, explosions induce shifts in the voting patterns of individuals who do vote, which are consistentwith emotional drivers and hurt specific political parties.