Could e-voting be the answer?

We saw it in Angola, Kenya and most recently in good-ol’ Zimbabwe. Any real democracy rests on a free and fair electoral process. However, as Africa has shown us time and time again, elections could mean the begin of civil war with no democratic resolution in sight.

Perhaps, if the manner in which elections were carried out would be changed, leaders would be appointed with ease and according to the will of the people.

I took a look at the concept of e-voting to see if it presented a plausible alternative for African elections. E-voting is when states use electronic technologies to either cast or count votes.

So the idea is for the voting process to work just like a trip to the ATM, you would cast your vote using touchscreen technology or a number of buttons. All ballots would be tallied electronically. This could prove to be faster and more effective than the current manual counting.

There are a number of advantages to this electoral system. With computers adding up the votes, there is less room for human error. Audio can be introduced for blind voters and zoom in capabilities would cater for those with poor vision. The screen can be displayed in a number of languages and polling stations can never run out of printed ballots.

Voter turn-out in Zimbabwe sits at less than 20%. This is due to, among many more reasons, the fact that many Zimbabweans have left their country in seek of refuge as where. With e-voting citizens could potentially place their vote from anywhere in the world if the necessary online networks and links were enabled.

South African youth are becoming more computer literate and are becoming regular Internet users. However their political engagement and involvement calls for great improvement. Creating a link between electronic media and voting could increase the number of youth voters in national and provincial elections.

However, e-voting is far from being flawless, especially in Africa. Computer literacy, for both the voters and the facilitators, would be a major hurdle. Electronics do not do away with room for human error as these computers are programmed and used by humans, who are at times impartial.

To fund such a project, the private sector would need to be called on board. Voters would be correct in questioning just how impartial the system would be if it is powered by companies with political clout and business interests.

Thabo Mbeki has been seen as good for business and a strong economy. The same would be hard to say about Jacob Zuma, as some have noted. It is totally plausible that an e-voting system programmed, run and managed by these interest would present Mbeki as the next president even if it were against the will of the people.

Even in America where e-voting has been in use, it is still under much scrutiny and heavily criticised. Democracies work only when the people trust that their vote has been counted fairly and freely. This can never happen with a system with so many flaws.

The 411 on Cyberdemocracy

In true backward logic, it was only after blogging on cyberdemocracy for a couple of week that I realise that exploring what cyberdemocracy is, could be rather useful. So in this post I’m giving the 411 of what I understand the tem to mean and what it’s components are.

Cyberdemocracy is also known as e-democracy, cyberpolitics or e-politics. The term comes from the idea that it is the combination of the internet or electronic media and the realm of politics.

The term describes the utilization on the internet and its communications technologies to drive or further democratic processes. Under the ideal circumstances (in previous posts I have noted the flaws of cyberdemocracy), electronic communication technologies can indeed enhance democracy in a number of ways.

As noted in a previous post, “the web is an open medium that allows the average individual a voice louder and more far-reaching than any other”. Given the openness of the internet and the power it gives the average citizen, it can be the ideal tool in any democracy.

With the internet being used more increasingly, decision-making processes are made more accessible allowing for more direct citizen participation. Ideally, e-politics allows for a more transparent and accountable democracy.

There are issues that arise with this new kind of politics. The most important of which to me and most relevant in Africa is the issue of the digital divide. In the last post, I spoke to this very issue. Another, is that of identification mechanisms, the protection and verification of users’ identities.

Once you start to understand cyberdemocracy you begin to see how there are a number of interests that stand to be greatly harmed. Because with the internet, one can easily over-ride the traditional routes to political participation and communications, media companies and their interests are in danger. We as the public would no longer look depend on them for information, neither would we need to use them to communicate our own ideas and concerns.

So now that I have broken down what I mean by cyberdemocracy, I can continue delving deeper into each issue to see what that means the average user.