IEC hoping to introduce e-voting

The Independent Electoral Com- mission (IEC) said it has con- sidered the introduction of an electronic voting system to improve the electoral process and reduce human error during counting.

Electronic systems entail voting online and reduce incidences of long queues for voters and results are tabu- lated or released immediately after the polling stations have been closed. According to Osupile Maroba, the IEC secretary, e-voting is something they are looking forward to and it was one of the recommendations that came from the observer missions during the 2004 general election and they have forwarded it to parliament and are still waiting for a response.

He said for the recommendation to pass through, it has to be passed into law first. The IEC this year introduced a record/tally sheet, which combines recording and separation of ballots papers. He said if they would have not responded to the need quickly due to high numbers of people who voted this year the counting would have taken two to three days in areas that saw high voter turn up. Other countries have successfully adopted the electronic voting especially in Europe and Latin America. 

The use of e-voting in Brazil- ian elections grew progressively from election to election a platform that Botswana can benchmark from.Another benefit is that there is reduction of spoilt ballot papers as voting system can warn voters about any invalid votes.