Looking into the feasibility of the use of e-voting and counting technologies by South Africa in future is the aim of DUT based e-voting expert Surendra Thakur.
Thakur, Director of e-Skills CoLab at DUT, was one of the IEC commissioners speaking at a two-day seminar organised by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) on electronic voting (e-voting) and counting technologies in Cape Town recently. The conference was aimed at stimulating debate on e-voting and counting. Thakur has been working closely with the IEC since 2010, researching and determining, through research, what impact e-voting could have in South Africa in time to come.

The seminar, which aimed to assess the feasibility of e-voting in South Africa by drawing on lessons learned from comparative experiences, was the first of its kind in South Africa. It served as a platform for key electoral stakeholders to gain an understanding of e-voting by interrogating its feasibility in South Africa.

According to Dr Nomsa Masuku, Deputy Chief Electoral Officer: Outreach Electoral Commission, she said it was critical for South African electoral stakeholders to engage in a discussion of such an exploratory venture in order to establish the groundwork for future consensus on e-voting. “In light of the country-specific experiences set out during the seminar, it was noted that e-voting has produced mixed results, with success in countries such as Brazil, India and the Philippines, while in others like Germany and Ireland, the technology has been abandoned for various reasons,” she said.

Speaking at the conference, Thakur defined e-voting as encompassing both electronic means of casting a vote and electronic means of counting votes. Thakur outlined a brief history of voting and voting methods. He said in Greece in 500 BC, the vote was negative and had nothing to do with right or wrong, or with justice. “In India in 750 AD, a huge mud pot (Kudam) served as a ballot box. Voters wrote the name of the desired candidate on a palm leaf (Panaiolai) and dropped it into the pot.

At the end of the process, the leaves (votes) were counted and whoever received the highest number of votes was elected,” he said.
He added that the Italians used a black or white ball to vote people into secret societies. The white ball meant acceptance and the black ball rejection. “Paper ballots were first used in Rome in 139 BC and in the USA in the 17th century. However, in Gambia in 1965, because the illiteracy rate was 75%, white translucent marbles were used for voting,” he said.

Thakur said e-voting may be conducted in either a controlled or an uncontrolled environment. He explained that a controlled environment was a secure area the Electoral Commission temporarily set up by installing equipment and implemented a clearly defined process flow, and an uncontrolled environment referred to the situation in which a voter can access a system remotely from the comfort of his or her own locality. He said the reasons for countries moving to e-voting included greater accuracy, faster democracy and modernity.

“Politicians might object to e-voting because it defers to or ‘constructively’ abrogates their responsibility to their electorate. Among the reasons why others might oppose e-voting were the fact that at some point, almost every machine has been compromised and that no technology is insulated from misappropriation. E-voting makes it difficult to monitor voter patterns and it may deny a voter the opportunity to vote by removing her or him from the roll,” he said.

Thakur said the IEC is recognised as a leader in electoral administration and in executing free and fair elections. “It has won five awards for its success; acknowledgement it has achieved through consistently researching and testing different election technologies to determine whether, where, how, and when such technologies might be added. Having conducted a cross border analysis of e-voting, the IEC is faced with two options: to further explore e-voting through trials and pilots or not to consider e-voting at this stage,” he said.

The IEC thanked Thakur for his role and expertise in making the seminar a success and has invited him to continue furthering discussions on the feasibility of the use of e-voting and counting technologies.
A summary report on the seminar which captured the key discussions and outcomes of the seminar is available on the IEC website. Go to http://www.elections.org.za/content/Documents/Publications/e-Voting/Report-on-e-Voting-Seminar-(PDF)/

-Waheeda Peters

Pictured: DUT based e-voting expert Surendra Thakur speaks on e-voting at a recent IEC seminar.