A Senior Lecturer at the Political Science Department, University of Ghana, Legon, Dr. Kwame Asah-Asante has recommended that a pilot study on e-voting be conducted in Ghana.
He said such a study would bring in the technical experts to manage the problems with the system before it can be fully replicated for general election in Ghana.
Reacting to concerns that Ghana is not ready to use e-voting in elections, Dr Asah-Asante said difficulties are fundamental to development, besides the use of electronic voting would engender trust and consolidate the country’s democracy.
“With our part of the world before we start we need to do experimentation , that is piloting .It is something we can venture into, but we should do piloting before and let people who are literate go through the process and the technocrats can correct the concerns”.
In response to the question if distrust in Africa’s own systems, Dr. Asah-Asante said he does not believe that theory. ”Difficulties or problems are the foundations for development. Initially, we need to venture into it, know what is in it and work to improve it and make it better for our use”.
Dr. Asah-Asante was however quick to add that adopting Electronic Voting Machines for Presidential and Parliamentary elections in Ghana must be done with caution, given the anxieties that come with elections on the continent.” Mind you we are using it for election and it is one of the volatile areas in democracy, in our part of the world. We must be able to handle it with certain level of carefulness” he added.
Story filed by Rebecca Ekpe
