Kenya’s electoral agency plans to utilize a blockchain voting system in its reform efforts to promote transparency.
The blockchain system in the works would be used to offer real-time voting results to avoid any perceptions of misconduct including tampering with the results. A statement from the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission Chairman Wafula Chebukati detailed the potential blockchain solution as providing security for all presidential candidates and allowing them to access and verify the results themselves.
The northeast African nation of Kenya has suffered claims of election rigging in nearly every election since the institution of multi-party democracy in 1991. The leader of the opposition party Raila Odinga just last year rejected two of the presidential polls; the first was annulled by the Supreme Court on the grounds of substantial electoral irregularities.
In 2007, chaos ensued after the disputed election results, leaving approximately 1,100 people dead, as well as displacing around 600,000 before a coalition government was finally agreed upon.
A blockchain-backed voting system could be a valuable tool in promoting a peaceful democracy in Kenya, bringing an end to any lingering doubts about the legitimacy of results.
Blockchain solutions in elections
Ukraine has also been testing the benefits of utilizing blockchain in its voting procedure. The Central Election Commission of Ukraine has been experimenting with the NEM blockchain, with the commission commending the immutability of hosting elections on the blockchain, as well as the improved security benefits of the decentrally-hosted data.
While it remains in the trial stages, the head of the country’s voter registry at the commission Oleksandr Stelmakh has been providing much positive feedback on his social media pages.
An Australian start-up also has plans to institute blockchain voting technology in countries such as Indonesia that are struggling to preserve the sanctity of elections in their emerging democracies.
The platform designer Jamie Skella said: “If you utilize blockchain to submit a vote in the same way that a Bitcoin transaction can’t be reversed, it can’t be changed, it’s a trustworthy process based on a system, which is not owned by any one entity, not by an organization, or a government or an individual.”
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