Digital Democracy in South Africa: Why E-Voting Won’t Be Easy
- Dr Maxwell Maseko
Navigating the new three-ballot system still needs to be thoroughly explained through voter education.
With the 2024 general elections now over, South Africa’s Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has shifted its focus to include exploring electronic voting or e-voting. While not entirely new, this conversation recently gained momentum following the country’s experiences in the May general elections.
Voting in the elections was marred by long queues and technical glitches involving voter management technology, especially in the big metros. Images of thousands of people still standing in queues waiting to vote way after midnight were splashed all over the internet and local television platforms.
Recently, I was invited to participate in a nationwide study on e-voting by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) conducted on behalf of the IEC.
Read more on the article as it appears on the Democracy in Africa (DiA)’s website.