Feb 13, 2012
Texting for Democracy | Mobile Phones and Elections in Africa
Photo by Mario Patino. APC political rally in Freetown, July 2007. Elections in Ghana last weekend have been praised as transparent and well-run – a good sign for a country that has worked hard to establish itself as the most well-governed state in Sub-Saharan Africa. While preparations have begun for the run-off on December 28, between Nana Akufo-Addo and John Atta Mills, the buzz around the elections has brought some attention to the use of cell phones by civil society groups to observe elections. The Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (Codeo) in Ghana used cell phones to report back on the conduct of elections at polling stations across the country. The system used a series of codes to immediately report misconduct and improved upon the cell phone systems used during elections in Indonesia, Montenegro, Egypt, and Sierra Leone. As an electoral observer with the National Electoral Watch (NEW) during the August 2007 elections in Sierra Leone, I used my cell phone to text in the ballot count for my polling station so that NEW could deter any one of the three main political parties from claiming victory in advance of official results. While the system caused some initial confusion during the training session and could only be extended to individuals with cell phones of their own, it exemplifies a starting point for brining innovation to the developing world. In some small way, civil society in Sierra Leone was empowered to hold the political process accountable.
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We know the fact that
We know the fact that technology has become a backbone of each nation. Among the technologies tele-communication is one of the major and fundamental source of communication. I am very much contended by the above mentioned article, which give stress on the cell phone utilization. In most of the countries, the government has given toll free facilities to the people. This is very essential thing for all the people in all across the world.
I recently came across your
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don’t know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
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[...] and well-run.” One
[...] and well-run.” One factor contributing to the success was that civil society groups had been using cell phones and texting to monitor and observe the ongoing elections. The Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO) [...]
The same was true of
The same was true of Cambodian parliamentary elections, which I observed in July. I volunteered for the Committee for Free and Fair Elections (COMFREL), which had detailed coding for observers to report irregularities as well as vote counts by cell phone. In Cambodia, the system enabled provincial coordinators for COMFREL, a delegation from the EU and other election monitoring organizations to confront some irregularities as they happened. In one polling station, the poll chief refused entrance to several election observers. The observer sent a coded message to COMFREL headquarters, which was then able to dispatch a team of higher-level election observers to resolve the situation.