Will IEBC overcome hurdles in quest for new technology?

What you need to know:

  • A few months ago, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) released an update on its reform agenda that included a statement on its intention to adopt blockchain technology in future elections.
  • Despite billions of shillings in investments and repeated reconstruction of the Kenyan electoral commission every five years, Kenyans have continued to fight over the integrity of the presidential election results.
  • It is therefore commendable that the electoral body seeks to repair this broken state of affairs through blockchain technology.
  • But to design and implement such a system for elections would require a huge paradigm shift within the political and legal arena.

A few months ago, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) released an update on its reform agenda that included a statement on its intention to adopt blockchain technology in future elections.

Specifically, the update clause (vi), part (ii) states that ''IEBC will adopt blockchain technology/distributed ledgers to enable presidential candidates securely access results real-time, enhancing transparency and alleviating suspicion/perceptions of opacity.''

This is a perfect statement that identifies and articulates the problems Kenyans face every five years during the presidential elections.

ELECTION RESULTS

Despite billions of shillings in investments and repeated reconstruction of the Kenyan electoral commission every five years, Kenyans have continued to fight over the integrity of the presidential election results.

The trust deficiency that IEBC faces arises from the fact that the prevailing electoral technology requires Kenyans to entrust a single, centralised entity to deliver clean, verifiable and accurate results.

One reason many citizens do not trust IEBC is that politicians believe their opponents will always try to manipulate the commission in their favour. This is an open secret that starts with politicians lobbying to have certain commissioners and secretariat staff appointed and certain suppliers win crucial tenders, amongst other arm-twisting tactics. All these in the spirit of the unwritten African rule which states: Counting the vote is more important than casting the vote.

TECHNOLOGY

It is therefore commendable that the electoral body seeks to repair this broken state of affairs through blockchain technology.

The technology would manage the counting of the vote from a central entity outside of IEBC and share the results with multiple stakeholders, including political parties, legal entities and civil society organisations.

Flooding the commission or the secretariat with their favoured homeboys and homegirls would therefore provide no benefit to the politicians because the counting will no longer be domiciled within the commission.

But this is only good on paper.

PARADIGM SHIFT

To design and implement such a system for elections would require a huge paradigm shift in the political and legal arenas.

Foremost, the legal provisions for managing elections must be disrupted to provide for a shared technical control in the casting and counting of presidential votes. It remains to be seen if the political class would be willing to give away their leverage of controlling the election body, by revising laws to facilitate a blockchain-controlled election.

Secondly, the commissioners and the secretariat must be educated about their new role as the custodians of the rules and procedures for the new technology, even as they cede operational control to the technology. In other words, the two must also appreciate that their ability to abuse the electoral process will be minimised, if not eliminated altogether. It will no longer be possible to change election records, unless all the other independent players and stakeholders are in agreement.

Furthermore, each of the participating stakeholders would have a copy of and access to election results from their own stations in time without having to beg the commission.

IEBC’s intentions for a blockchain-delivered elections are therefore quite progressive, but only time will tell if the political class will agree to these revolutionary proposals.

Mr Walubengo is a lecturer at Multimedia University of Kenya, Faculty of Computing and IT. Email: [email protected], Twitter: @Jwalu