Knowing of a fight prior to start of election (5)
I believe the answer is:
aware
'knowing' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'a fight prior to start of election' is the wordplay.
'fight' becomes 'war' (warring is a kind of fighting**).
'prior to' says to put letters next to each other.
'start of' indicates taking the first letters.
The initial letter of 'election' is 'e'.
'a'+'war'+'e'='AWARE'
'of' is the link.
(Other definitions for aware that I've seen before include "Alert, conscious of" , "Knowing (of something)" , "Apprised or informed" , "Acquainted with or conscious of" , "Having knowledge of, informed" .)