M- v o t i n g i n d e v e l o p i n g c o u n t r i e s The use of ICTs in elections Information and communications technologies (ICTs), such as mark-sense, direct electronics recording (DRE), mechanical lever machine (MLM), punch cards (PC), the internet and mobile phones, have been fronted as one of the possible solutions to improving voter turn-up in developing countries (Caarls, 2010; Ayo et al., 2011). For instance, proponents of e-voting observe that ICTs have the potential to increase participation for disadvantaged communities, such as people with disabilities; serve as an antidote for voter apathy; provide greater voter convenience in terms of voting time and location; and ensure greater accuracy as well as being cost saving (Kailasam, 2010). Many developing countries, especially in Africa, have introduced ICTs either in the initial stages of the election process, or in monitoring and reporting election violence and fraud. The most widely used ICTs in elections in developing countries are biometric systems for voter registration and mobile phones for the monitoring and reporting of election results, violence and fraud cases. Mobile election monitoring through open and bounded crowd sourcing has taken place in a number of Sub- Saharan African countries, including Benin (2011), Burundi (2010), Kenya (2010), Nigeria (2011), Sudan (2010) and Zimbabwe (2008). Biometric voter registration has been utilised in countries including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Togo, Guinea, Uganda, Angola, Nigeria and Mozambique (Caarls, 2010). During the 2012 presidential elections in Uganda, Citizen Election Watch – IT (CEWIT) and DEMGroup found that more than 10,000 text messages were sent reporting on various matters including vote buying, registration hiccups, inappropriate campaign conduct, cases of violence, and general complaints and feedback (Hellström and Karefelt, 2012). Commonwealth Governance Handbook 2014/15 27 Respondents were also asked whether they would be encouraged to use their mobile phones for voting if guided through a step by step process in mobile phone voting before and during the voting process. The results were positive, with 35 per cent of respondents answering that they would be encouraged to vote using their mobile phones if a user-friendly, step-by-step m-voting system was available. The convenience of using a mobile phone for voting was also addressed. In this regard, the study explored whether respondents would be encouraged to m-vote given the near proximity of their mobile phones. There is no need to travel to the nearest polling station because the polling station is in the mobile phone. Some 24 per cent of respondents indicated that they would agree to use their mobile phones for voting given that a mobile phone is convenient and portable, meaning that they could vote from home. The study explored the principle of perceived ease of use, that is, whether the respondents would be encouraged to use their mobile phones for voting if the process was easy to learn and operate. The results found that 28 per cent of the respondents indicated that they would be encouraged to vote using their mobile phones if the process is easy to learn and simple to perform. Finally, the study looked at how the perceived usefulness of using mobile phones affected respondents’ willingness to participate in m-voting. The study explored whether the respondents would be encouraged to use their mobile phones for voting so as to save time, vote for the right candidate, and avoid the violence and intimidation that takes place at the polling station. Some 33 per cent of the respondents suggested that, in light of these factors, they would be encouraged to use their mobile phones for voting. Conclusions The persuasive and acceptance strategies discussed in this article alone may not be adequate in achieving a desired raise in the acceptance and usage level of mobile phones for voting. For example, the discussion of rewards was mistaken by respondents for a form of bribery and corruption. It is also worth noting that, whereas the acceptance strategies as a whole had a reasonable influence on respondents who worked in NGOs or the private sector, those who earned more than USh1.8 million per annum and those who owned high-end mobile phones, there was very little influence among the civil servants, those above 60 years of age and those with no education. Other aspects that need to be worked on to achieve wider acceptance of mobile phones for voting include elimination of election fraud and improving mobile phone network performance. For example, based on previous elections, Eilu and Baguma (2013) observed that some respondents believe that it is much easier to rig elections using this technology than it is with manual voting. Others believed that the existing laws and policies on elections are biased and favour the ruling government. Nevertheless, as shown in the results from this study, persuasive and acceptance design principles have the potential to raise the acceptance and usage level of mobile phones for voting in a developing country like Uganda by close to 20 per cent. Therefore, alongside addressing challenges facing effective voting in developing countries, attempts to use mobile phones as voting facilitators should consider the utilisation of persuasion and acceptance principles. References Ayo, C. K., Ekong, U. O., Ikhu-Omoregbe, N. A. and Ekong, V. A., 2011. M-Voting Implementation: The Issues and Trends webpage Academia. Available at: www.academia.edu/ 610732/m-Voting_Implementation_The_Issues_and_Trends Accessed 15 December 2014. Caarls, S., 2010. The Use Of Technologies In Electoral Systems Prepared pdf Ifes-Egypt. Available at: www.aswatna-eg.net/ assets/files/Technology%20and%20Elections.pdf Accessed 15 November 2011. CAE (Colloquium on African Elections), 2009. Best Practices and Cross-Sectoral Collaboration pdf National Democratic Institute. Available at: www.ndi.org/files/African_Elections_Best_ Practices_ENG.pdf Accessed 15 December 2014. Davies, D. F., 1989. ‘Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user acceptance of information technology’. MIS Quarterly, 13 (3), pp. 319–340. Eilu, E. and Baguma, R., 2013. Designing Reality Fit M-voting. Seventh International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance, 22–25 October 2013. Seoul, Korea: ICEGOV. EU-UNDP, 2010. Procurement Aspects of Introducing ICT Solutions in Electoral Processes: The Specific Case of Voter Registration. Brussels: Joint EU-UNDP Task Force on Electoral Assistance. Fogg, B. J., 2004. Captology Understanding How Computers Manipulate People pdf Accelerating. Available at: www.accelerating.org/ac2004/slides/AC2004(Fogg).pdf Accessed 12 September 2014.
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