Lessons from Africa

Kenya's recently annulled elections have highlighted election problems that extend throughout the continent. In an analysis on the allAfrica site, Stephen Chan notes that African democracies are in the process of co-ordinating a ‘generation jump’ in applied technology and, so far, they have done a remarkable job by global standards. ‘After all, something like electronic voting is still not used in the UK. It's Africa that has led the way – and the West isn't the place to look for immediate answers for all the problems of running a 21st-century election. One such problem is the use of multiple forms of electronic voting. Voter identification by electronic means is given priority in Nigeria, but even there, it's not implemented consistently: there are different systems provided by different companies, all submitting tenders on a competitive basis.’ Chan believes the AU needs to devise a standard set of requirements and attributes for electronic voting across the continent. ‘It's no longer enough to have a protocol that says paper votes have to be placed into clear plastic ballot boxes. But the AU has fallen behind.’