OGGN supports use of electronic voting for future elections

Oct 07, 2022 News

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…cites Brazil results available in 12 hours with over 100 million voters

Kaieteur News –With Local Government Elections (LGE) just months away, civil society group, ‘Oil and Gas Governance Network (OGGN)’ has joined calls for the use of electronic voting in future polls.

The group has pointed Guyana to neighbouring Brazil which it said recently conducted elections with its more than 200 million citizens, but was still able to give the result of the process in less than 12 hours.

In a public comment, group member, Andre Brandli , said that Brazil has been using electronics in voting for more than a century and it has worked quite well for the millions of people using the electoral system. He highlighted that many of the instances relating to electoral fraud has be removed or reduced due to the use of the system and urged that Guyana take its cue in this regard.

“Have a look at Brazil, our neighbour to the south covering 49 percent of South America’s land mass with a population of 216 million people 270 times that of Guyana,” Brandli said. He explained that Brazil’s elections were held last Sunday, October 2, 2022 to elect the President, Vice President, and the National Congress. In addition, elections for Governors and Vice Governors, State Legislative Assemblies, were held at the same time in 26 states and 1 federal district. “Most amazingly,” he posited, “the results of that vote were made public less than twelve hours after the last polling stations had closed.” Brandli continued that Brazil was able to achieve this by “using an electronic voting system that has been working smoothly for more than a quarter century.” Electronic voting was first introduced in 1996 and since 2000, elections in Brazil have been held completely electronically.

“This has prevented the manipulation of ballot boxes that was previously common. In addition, the number of invalid votes has been reduced because voters who cannot read or write were often overwhelmed before.” Brandli went on that Brazilian voters used to have to write in their candidates’ numbers. Now, he said, they enter a code, see the photo of the person selected and confirm the person with a green button. Those who wish to abstain or even vote invalidly since voting is compulsory in Brazil, can also press a white button, he informed. “The electronic ballot boxes for the 156 million voters are not connected to the internet. They are deployed to polling stations throughout the vast country from densely populated urban centers in the south to the most remote regions in the Amazon basin to the north. The electronic ballot boxes function autonomously,” the OGGN member highlighted.

He said that the results of each polling station are printed out at the end of voting and posted publicly. The hard drive with the voting results is taken in a sealed envelope to the next electoral court in the constituent state, and the results are transmitted by internet or satellite (in the Amazon region, for example) directly to Brasilia to the Supreme Electoral Court. “A printout of a person’s vote as proof is not permitted, because the receipt would allow vote buyers to verify that a voter voted as promised.” In addition, Brandli said that a candidate could more easily claim that there were irregularities in the elections during parallel vote counts, just like Donald Trump did in the US Presidential Elections of 2020. He noted however, that “given the long track record of Brazil’s electronic voting system, GECOM should seriously consider adopting it for Guyana’s next and any future general elections.” He reminded that Guyana’s General Elections of March 2, 2020, were marred by irregularities during the vote counting process, which led to a recount supervised by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). Subsequently, he continued, election petitions were filed at the Guyana’s High Court, which still await final resolution.

Guyana’s electoral system in currently burdened with two topical issue- that being a clean voters list and the use of better voting systems. Opposition Commissioners at the GECOM have made numerous calls for the integration of biometrics systems into the voting process, with even Government Commissioners backing the idea and stating too that the idea was originally one from the governing party.

At a Press Conference at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre in August, Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo said that his Government did not support the use of the biometrics which could be used for ulterior motives such as preventing people from voting. “We will not support the use of biometrics as a restriction on people’s right to vote,” Jagdeo had said. He suggested that if the biometric system is introduced, it could potentially become a tactic used to challenge election results and the Government is not “going to fall into that trap again.” As it relates to the voters list, the Opposition is not against holding off the LGE until it is addressed. They have in fact urged that no elections be held until an earnest look at the issues facing the electoral system. The GECOM is still to finalise its LGE date.

 

 

 

 

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