A request for e‐voting system in South Africa: A case of 2019 national elections

• Published date: 01 February 2022
• Author: John Mamokhere,Selaelo John Mabeba
• Date: 01 February 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2338

ACADEMIC PAPER

A request for e-voting system in South Africa: A case of 2019

national elections

John Mamokhere

1

| Selaelo John Mabeba

2

1

Department of Research Administration and

Development, University of Limpopo,

Mankweng, South Africa

2

Department of Public Administration,

University Of Limpopo, Mankweng,

South Africa

Correspondence

John Mamokhere, Department of Research

Administration and Development, University

of Limpopo, Mankweng, South Africa.

Email: johnmamokhere@gmail.com

On the 8th of May 2019, South African citizens in all nine provinces were granted

with the opportunity to elect their preferred political party into power. Over million

people exercised their right through a ballot voting system for political parties of their

choice. However, not every citizen was satisfied with how the election process was

coordinated and facilitated particularly in certain areas. This is triggered by the fact

that rumors were circulating in various social media platforms imparting that some of

the eligible voters were accused of multiple voting while some of the ballot papers

were found outside certain voting stations. The paper requests the South African

government to introduce an e-voting system as a means to prevent the above-

mentioned challenges that are associated with the manual voting system. Conse-

quently, using the diffusion of innovation theory, this paper argues that e-voting

system has several pros that may strengthen the credibility of elections by reducing

the risk of double voting and spoilt ballot papers and it also acknowledge the 4IR as

an advanced system to complement and be integrated into the e-voting system to

be more effective. The aim of this paper was achieved through the use of desktop

content analysis approach to reflect on the pros and cons with specific focus to

both e-voting and manual system. The paper examined the pitfalls associated with

the ballot voting system. In conclusion, some of the challenges that emerged in the

2019 general elections could be resolved through the adoption of e-voting system

in the long-run.

1|INTRODUCTION

In terms of section 19(2) of the Constitution of the Republic of South

Africa, 1996, every citizen has the right to free, fair and regular elec-

tions for any legislative body established in terms of the Constitution.

The Republic of South Africa held its sixth democratic elections in

May 2019 after the apartheid regime in 1994. This is so as millions of

South African citizens from the age of 18 years and above had the

privilege to cast and exercise their rights through a ballot voting sys-

tem. Arguably, voting is a method by which citizens are allowed to

decide on which political party should be their government of the day.

Voting allows a nation to choose their political representatives and

express their preferences on how they should be governed for a

period of 5 years. Therefore, preferences on which party should be

voted into power are normally guided by what each political party is

willing to offer and do for its citizens in case it emerges victory. In

principle, the integrity of the election process is crucial to the integrity

of democracy itself. The election system must be sufficiently robust

to withstand a variety of fraudulent behaviors and must be sufficiently

transparent and comprehensible that voters and candidates (political

representatives) can accept the results of the election without any dis-

satisfactions and concerns (Inuwa & Oye, 2015, p. 44). Nevertheless,

the 2019 National elections had indicated several examples of elec-

tions being manipulated to influence their outcome in favour of a cer-

tain political party while disadvantaging other competing political

organizations. For example, videos were circulating social media plat-

forms showing ballot papers and boxes that were found unmonitored

outside certain voting stations in certain provinces. Furthermore,

Received: 6 November 2019 Revised: 2 July 2020 Accepted: 28 July 2020

DOI: 10.1002/pa.2338

J Public Affairs. 2022;22:e2338. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa © 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd 1of6

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2338