eElections: A Vote for ICT

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e-ElectionsA Vote for ICT?

• Democratic Governance
• Electoral Systems and Processes Global Practice
  Meeting
• Manila

Raúl Zambrano 17 November 2004
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Contents

• ICT and Development
• ICT and Governance
• ICT Challenges for Developing Countries
• E- Elections framework
• Conclusions (and final vote)

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Why ICT?

• ICT Information and Communications Technology
• ICT not just computers or PCs or the Internet
• Convergence of computing, media/broadcasting and
  telecommunications
• Emphasis on I and C, not the T
• ICT is a tool, not a goal in itself
  mainstreaming!
• ICT as an enabler for development
• This stuff is not for techies or geeks only!

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ICT for Development

• UNDP a pioneer on ICT since 1992 through a
  variety of global, regional and national
  programmes
• Focus on broad policy issues to ensure a
  sustainable process and national impact
• Multi-stakeholder approach in policy dialogue and
  programme implementation
• Support to bottom-up approaches and processes,
  networking of citizens and CSOs through ICT
• Support the use of Free/Open Source Software
  since 1995

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ICT and Governance e-governance

• A key area of support for UNDP since the late
  1990s, now a dedicated sub-practice
• UNDP E-governance Framework
• Access and Connectivity infrastructure and
  capacity development for citizens
• E-government ICT in government for increased
  transparency, efficiency and accountability by
  citizens (infostructure)
• Access to information information resources
  widely available to citizens in multiple formats
  and languages
• Networks, networking and applications networks
  of citizens, e-parliaments, e-voting,
  e-deliberation, etc.

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E-governance Scope of UNDPs work

• Over 200 UNDP e-governance and access to
  information projects and programmes in over 100
  countries
• Distributed as follows

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Examples of e-governance

• Swazilands Digital Villages in two rural areas
  which aims to provide connectivity and access to
  information for village users
• Macedonias regional information centers
  providing information to over ten thousand
  citizens and CSO networks
• Jordans e-procurement and e-accounting
  programmes to modernize the national government
• Brazils virtual Community of Legislative Power
  which seeks to provide access to information and
  enhance citizens participation in the process
• Bangladesh Sustainable Development Networking
  Progrmame (SDNP) providing citizens with access
  to information on environment and the MDGs (in
  Bangla)

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ICT Challenges in Developing Countries

• Lack of adequate infrastructure/infostructure
• Limited local capacities, educational resources
• Access to ICTs restricted to very few (usually
  local elites)
• Political instability, and politically closed
  regimes
• Corruption and lack of political will to change
• Existence of multiple languages/prevalence of
  oral traditions in local communities
• Policies lack of adequate regulatory frameworks
  and legislation (rule of law)

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ICT and Elections e-Elections

• Three key components
• ICT for national Electoral Bodies
• E-voting using ICT for facilitating voting
  procedures
• Electoral networking enhancing citizen
  (specially youth and women) participation in
  overall election processes

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e-Elections Electoral Bodies

• State of the art ICT solutions
• Capacity building and institutional strengthening
• ICT applications for easy access and use by
  citizens
• Access to relevant information resources
• Transparency and accountability vis-à-vis
  citizens/electorate
• Governance mechanisms need to be clearly spelled
  out
• Should be linked to e-government strategies
• Transnational/South-South linkages across
  national Electoral commissions

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e-Elections e-voting

• By far, main focus of use of ICT in elections
• Concerns about scalability and transparency
• Process issues tracking votes, paper trail
  audits, machine interface, privacy, security,
  accuracy and transparency
• Technical issues software being used
  proprietary vs. Free/Open Source
  Software/reliability of both software and
  hardware
• Who is doing the counting? - governance
  mechanisms
• Not only a technical issue

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e-Elections Networking

• Use of ICT to promote citizen participation in
  elections processes
• Bottom-up/grassroots initiatives to increase
  awareness and participation in electoral
  processes
• Increased involvement of network of citizens in
  election issues, more ownership and participation
• ICT as an critical networking component (not the
  only one though)
• Independent from electoral bodies/Government
  support

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Conclusions

• Need to adopt an integrated approach for
  e-elections
• All three components are inter-related
• But UNDP needs to focus on filling the gaps
• E-voting can be implemented in partnership with
  the private sector (including CSOs)
• ICT for Electoral Bodies should be part of
  national e-government strategies but focus on
  capacity development and access to information
  via ICT
• Citizens networking is essential for open and
  transparent electoral processes
• Latter links to e-parliaments and other
  e-participation mechanisms to enhance democratic
  governance

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A vote for ICT?

• Yes but
• ICT as a tool for electoral systems and processes
  
• ICT not a panacea, will solve some issues, but
  create others
• ICT as a critical networking tool that empowers
  both independent electoral bodies and citizens