East-African Elections

Can ICT enhance the democratic process?

ICT & Elections

• Voter registration• Voter education• Parties and policy• Election monitoring• Tallying & Analysis

The Top 10 Election Applications

App 1: Ushahidi #1

• Citizens reporting by SMS and other channels

• Displayed on map and timeline• Designed to empower citizens, and

discourage fraud around registration• www.ushahidi.com

App 1: Ushahidi #1

• Reports on:– Dead people on the registry– Minors on the registry– Ghost voters– Closed registration offices– Refused registrations

App 2: Register Analysis

• Find anomalies in the voter register– Find Duplicates– Find constituencies with a very high age

Georgia Registrations

App 3: Voter Education

• Campaign with short clear message• Multiple Channels

– SMS– Newspaper– Radio

• Designed to empower citizens to monitor the electoral process

App 4: Voter advisor

• Questionnaires asking your opinions on policy issues

• Reply indicates which parties support your own views

• Designed to encourage policy debate

App 5: Voter polls

• Ask opinions on political issues• Publish results • Work together with existing media

App 7: party chat

• Send questions in to Candidates• Live radio broadcast replies• Replies shown on web for easy access• Designed to involve citizens in process,

encourage policy debate.• www.mzalendo.com

App 8: Ushahidi #2

• Citizens report abuses up to election day

• Voter bribing, using gov’t resources, violence, arrests of opposition…

App 8: Ushahidi #2

• Observer co-ordination• Use SMS to track observers• Use SMS to alert observers to reported

incidents for verification• Use SMS to confirm reports

App 9: SMS Tallying

• Submit results from polling stations• From observers, public, and parties• Designed to give a fast accurate tally

and support electoral process

App 10: Result Analysis

• Find anomalies in the results– More ballot papers than registered

voters– 100% votes for 1 candidate

• http://afghanistanelectiondata.org/data

Afghanistan Results

Overall

• Use different media– Inbound & Outbound

• Separate voter education & incident reporting

• Share datasets– Polling stations– District Boundaries

• Different sources have different trust levels.

• Be transparent

Q & A