Abstract
A considerable number of developing countries have introduced Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) mainly in the initial stages of the electoral process such as voter registration using biometric technology. Post-conflict and emerging democracies in particular are exploring biometric voter registration to have clean voter registers—free of ghost voters such as Democratic Republic of Congo, Togo, Guinea Conakry, and Uganda. However, several other attempts to integrate ICTs—particularly computer-based systems in electoral processes in many developing countries have registered high failure. Causes of failure are mainly social cultural and economic challenges rather than technical and security factors. The various failures come at a soaring price for the world’s poorest countries. For example in 2001, Uganda lost US$ 22 million in a failed e-registration system. Hence there is a need to continue investigating how such failures can be avoided or at least reduced. Some Scholars have suggested the use of mobile phones as a voting tool given their wide spread use, portability, and affordability. However, to-date, research on use of mobile phones in elections has mainly focused on individual cases of using mobile phones in elections in specific countries. To our knowledge, there has not been an examination of current use of mobile phones in elections versus the opportunities they offer and existing challenges. This discussion is useful to inform future development of mobile phone based electoral services and enactment of relevant policies. This chapter discusses opportunities mobile phones can offer developing countries in organizing and conducting free and fair elections, how mobile phones are currently being used, challenges still inhibiting wider use of mobile phones in elections in developing countries and possible solutions.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
C.J. Aker, P. Collier, C.P. Vicente, Voter education using cell phones: evidence from a field experiment in Mozambique, 2013
C.J. Aker, Is information power? Using mobile phones and free newspapers during an election in Mozambique, 2013
C.J. Aker, I.M. Mbiti, Mobile phones and economic development in Africa (2010), http://www.cgdev.org/files/1424175_file_Aker_Mobile_wp211_FINAL.pdf
H.A. Akoh, Mobile phones: transforming the electoral process. Special prize of the jury at the PIWA “Information Societies” prize, 2008
R. Baguma, Mobile money services in Uganda: design gaps and recommendations. HCI 2013, 249–258 (2013)
B. Bardall, Election violence monitoring and the use of new communication technologies, in Democrats, Dictators, and Demonstrators Conference Issue, vol. 7, issue 2, 2010
J. Blanc, Challenging the norms and standards of election administration Electronic Voting (2007), http://www.ifes.org/publication/de870bce4b39339d89a3469c8de3a0a0/1%20IFES%20Challenging%20Election%20Norms%20and%20Standards%20WP%20ELVOT.pdf
S. Caarls, The use of technologies in electoral systems prepared For Ifes-Egypt (2010), http://www.aswatna-eg.net/assets/files/Technology%20and%20Elections.pdf. Accessed Nov 2011
V. Cheng, Online & mobile voting: accessibility for all (2014), http://www.haayo.org/Mobile-phones-Transforming-the.html, http://www.openideo.com/challenge/voting/concepting/online-mobile-voting-increase-accessibility-for-all. Accessed 12 Feb 2014
J. Chipchase, Understanding non-literacy as a barrier to mobile phone communication (2005), http://www.kiwanja.net/database/document/report_literacy_barrier.pdf. Accessed 16 May 2012
P. Collier, C.P. Vicente, Violence, bribery, and fraud: the political economy of elections in Sub-Saharan Africa draft, 2010
Colloquium on African Elections (CAE) Best practices and cross-sectoral collaboration final report (2009), http://www.ndi.org/files/African_Elections_Best_Practices_ENG.pdf
E. Eilu, R. Baguma, Designing a reality fit M-voting, in 7th International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance, Seoul, 22–25 Oct 2013
Freedom Fone Lab (2012), https://dev.freedomfone.org/
R. Heeks, Most e-government-for-development projects fail: How can risks be reduced? (2003), http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/cafrad/unpan011226.pdf
J. Hellström, Mobile phones for good governance – challenges and way forward, 2010
R. Howard, Smart mobs: the next social revolution, 2002
S. Igbolade, Nigerian elections 2007: E-Voting as a missing link. Article produced in the framework of PIWA “Information Societies” prize (2008), http://www.haayo.org/Nigerian-Elections-2007-E-Voting.html
IT Fact 85% of electronic voting projects failed in developing countries: Fact recorded on November 5, 2004. Categories: E-government (2004), http://www.itfacts.biz/85-of-electronic-voting-projects-failed-in-developing-countries/1942. Accessed 24 June 2011
ITU. The world in 2013: ICT Facts & Figures (2013), http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Documents/facts/ICTFactsFigures2013-e.pdf. Accessed 10 Feb 2013
Kailasam, R. m-Governance …Leveraging Mobile Technology to extend the reach of e-Governance, 2010
A. Kumar, A.K. Srivastava, Designing and developing secure protocol for mobile voting, 2006
R. Lopez-Pintor, Assessing electoral fraud in new democracies: A basic framework. IPSA-ECPR Joint Conference, North-South University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, 2011
I. Medhi, S. Patnaik, E. Brunskill, S.N.N. Gautama, W. Thies, K. Toyama, Designing mobile interfaces for novice and low-literacy users. ACM Trans. Comput. Hum. Interact. 18(1), Article 2 (2011)
A. Mugenyi, Wanted: a mobile money regulator. The CEO Magazine, June 2012
M. Muthoni, Using JAD to bridge the design-reality gaps; A major cause of IS projects’ failures in the developing countries, in The Proceedings of the 2nd Annual International Conference on Sustainable ICT in Developing Countries, Makerere University, Kampala, 6–9 August 2006
National Union of Disabled Person in Uganda (NUDIPU), http://www.nudipu.org/
O.M. Olaniyan, T. Mapayi, S.A. Adejumo, A proposed multiple scan biometric-based system for electronic voting. Afr. J. Comput. ICT 4(2), 9–16 (2011). ISSN 2006–178
N.K. Sin, A. Sulaiman, A.H.S. Zolait, Analysis of mobile users’ perception towards SMS voting. Commun. IBIMA 1(21), 182–190 (2008)
M. Stein, Strategy guide: using mobile phones in electoral and voter registration campaigns, 2006
Tentena, Mobile phone subscribers hit 14 million in Uganda. Business week, 20th June (2012), http://www.busiweek.com. Accessed 10 Sep 2012
Uganda Demographic Health Survey (UDHS) (2011), http://www.ubos.org/onlinefiles/uploads/ubos/UDHS/UDHS2011.pdf. Accessed 20 June 2012
UNESCO Institute of Statistics Data Centre, regional literacy rates, 2007
C. Vergne, Turnout in developing countries: the effect of mass media on national voter participation. Center for studies and international development CERDI, 2009
G. Walsham, D. Robey, S. Sahay, Foreword: special issue on information systems in developing countries. MIS Q. 31(2), 317–326 (2007)
Wharton Technology: Using Mobile Phone Technology to Ensure Fair Voting in the Middle East (2013), http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/using-mobile-phone-technology-to-ensure-fair-voting-in-the-middle-east/
G. White, Designing Mobile Services for non-literate communities, in Proceedings of 2nd International Conference on M4D-Mobile Communication Technology for Development, Kampala, 2010
E. Yujuico, Democratisation & new voter mobilization in Southeast Asia: digital democracy and voter mobilisation in the Philippines, 2010
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Baguma, R., Eilu, E. (2015). Using Mobile Phones in Elections in Developing Countries: Opportunities and Challenges. In: Gamatié, A. (eds) Computing in Research and Development in Africa. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08239-4_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08239-4_12
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-08238-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-08239-4
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)