The Electoral Commission of Uganda tried biometric registration in a bid to reduce fraud. Uganda also used ICT in transmitting the results from the district returning officers to the national tallying centre. This is the kind of system that was used in Kenya during the referendum and by-elections with credible success.
But the hard nut to crack in most African elections lies in digitalising the whole processes involved so as to attain e-voting alongside e-democracy and e-government. Challenges and the dark side usually take centre stage.
Traditionally, an election is symbolised by ballot boxes and tonnes of manual paper work. To many citizens, this makes it “real”. But with the use of ICT, the future spells an evolution of touch screen voting booths and voting via the Internet or on the mobile phone. The shift to virtual ballot boxes that symbolise e-voting presents challenges as well as benefits.
Let’s begin on a positive note. New technologies, if well designed, can help people cast their votes remotely. In theory, ICT can allow a voter to exercise his or her democratic rights from the comfort of the house or office on a voting platform designed for Internet and mobile phone vote casting.
The disabled who cannot manage the long queues at polling stations can also gain from such technology. And for the blind, ICT can offer a hustle-free expression of their democratic rights.
Electronic voting systems can be made more scalable, versatile, flexible, and reliable. The e-systems can handle large numbers. Even for small populations, scalability is vital. Kenya had approximately 12.6 million registered voters during the 2010 referendum and used electronic means for transmission of results from polling stations.
Other countries have even larger populations. Way back in 2002, more than 100 million Brazilians cast their votes on more than 404,000 touch screen machines. Good systems, if well implemented, can propel democracy to the next level digitally. In essence, e-voting demands the integrity of those in-charge and the efficiency of the system.
However, it is not perfect. One of the big issues surrounding electronic voting lies in the integrity of the systems available and whether they can be trusted.
The trouble that hounded America in the 2000 presidential election showed that computers might not be completely error-free.
What about the jinx of election malpractices?
A programming error or any manipulation spoils the broth in e-voting. A mess created by a human or corruption of the system puts e-voting in the dustbin of non-authenticity.
Computer security is vital. The ogres of insecurity surface with threats of hackers, viruses, and corrupt programmes. Unless checked, insecurity threats tarnish the bright side of e-voting.
There is also the challenge of ICT infrastructure to sustain the electronic processes associated with e-voting. Most countries still need to do a lot of ground work on infrastructure in order to embrace the e-government and e-voting models.
Even as countries grapple with the adoption of ICTs in democratisation, it is worth noting that the wave of digitalisation is shaping the political world.
Politicians and activists are finding another voice and podium on the growing use of ICT. President Yoweri Museveni’s message in a rap song on Youtube received thousands of views and spilled over to social media forums. Some Kenyan politicians have active Facebook and Twitter accounts in order to remain in touch with their followers.
Social-media has attracted its own interest in democracy. People are finding a voice in virtual meeting points and exchanging social and political ideas that were once confined to State-owned media. In the Ugandan election, the aspirants were active on Facebook and on their websites.
This is a new trend that is using the networked digital world to transmit political messages. As we recently saw, social media has played an important role in the democratisation movement in the Arab world.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Esmond Shahonya
Quelle/Source: Daily Nation, 28.02.2011
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