IEC to discuss e-voting in upcoming elections

The Commission will host a three-day e-voting conference at the Cape Town International Convention Centre from Monday.

Following years of pleas from voters to go paperless and ease the snaking queues at voting stations, the IEC is now officially looking to South Africans for an in-depth discussion on how this can be done.

The conference will launch a discussion document based on a research study by the Human Sciences Research Council that looks at the implications of electronic voting for South Africa.

Some of the aspects of discussion include:

• Country review of electronic voting, including those countries currently using poll-site technologies as well as those who use internet voting. This includes countries that introduced electronic voting but subsequently abandoned it.
• Key insights from the legislative review indicate that in the event electronic voting is adopted then there would a necessity for legislative amendments.
• Lessons from two roundtables, which were conducted with academics and representatives of blind persons.
• Lessons from key informant interviews that were conducted with civil society organisations and election management bodies.
• Views which were solicited through a public opinion survey.
• An overall outline of the findings of the studies conducted.

IEC chief executive officer Sy Mamabolo has described the conference as an opportunity for South Africans to shape the future of voting in the digital space.

“We’ll be launching a discussion document on electronic voting. No decision has yet been made to implement electronic voting, yet we find it necessary to have a national conversation about the subject.”

Mamabolo says some research revealed that there is no common understanding of what e-voting entails.

“This conference aims not only to reflect on possibilities for implementing e-voting but also to drive common understanding and knowledge of the subject among South Africans. We encourage further conversations and lively debates among South Africans from all walks of life as we have seen happening in some social media platforms recently.”

Representatives of some countries that have implemented electronic voting - such as Estonia and Namibia - are also expected to participate in the gathering.

Mamabolo has encouraged politicians, lawmakers, and corporates in the Information, Communication, Technology (ICT) space to attend and participate in the three-day conference.

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