Question:

This question is posted by ACE on behalf of Granville Abrahams

The Electoral Commission of South Africa will be launching an online candidate nomination system for the upcoming local government elections in 2016. While this innovation will not replace manual submissions at approximately 250 specified local offices in the region, it is hoped that many will opt for the comfort of using the online system, thus eliminating the need to travel to each one of the local offices and relaxing the burden for parties contesting multiple municipalities. 

The election consists of a mixed constituency and PR list system. Should a party contest each seat in all of the municipalities, the estimated number of candidates could amount to a maximum of close to 10,000 per party. Is online candidate nomination practiced anywhere else? If so, what was the immediate impact of this change? Did it replace a manual process for submission? Is it a best practice and what are the pros and cons?

Summary of Responses:

One practitioner noted that when initially trying to test the online candidate nomination process, it would be advisable (and considered best practice) to keep the manual registration process running parallel to online registration. The practitioner highlighted some issues to take into consideration regarding online nomination systems:

• Security of the system and reliability of the network
• Buy-in – it is important that all electoral stakeholders accept the system before the roll out
• Ensure thorough training of candidates and party members on details of the online system
• Ensure that candidates submit relevant documents according to stated rules & regulations
• Review the appeal mechanism to give more time for candidates to appeal the preliminary candidate list. Otherwise, changing the ballot paper by court decision could be expensive.
• Verification process – it can be difficult to ensure the integrity of any documents required in addition to nomination forms. In this practitioners’ experience, the law required original copies of these documents signed and approved by official officers.

Another practitioner outlined the online nomination process in the state of Maharashtra, India that has been in place since 2015 for all Local Body elections. According to the practitioner, the process entails the prospective candidate registering on the website and completing the nomination form by entering all details required by law. The candidate has the option of correcting any details as many times as needed. Once all of the details are finalized by the candidate, the candidate must sign a printout of the Nomination paper and physically present it to the Returning Officer.

Some “pros” and “cons” of the online candidate nomination system were outlined as follows: 

Pros:

• Parties can capture their own information, reducing errors and increasing efficiency
• Real-time verification of candidate eligibility
• Electronically generated acceptance of nomination forms obviating the need to manually complete forms for each candidate
• Access to a payment gateway to facilitate ease of payment
• Exporting and importing spreadsheets for each municipality to allow for copy and paste of candidate data that may be in existing political party database
• Progress reports for all elections contested by a party
• Instant confirmation of the list of candidates and wards contested

Cons:

• Access to internet may be limited to some small parties / candidates, particularly in rural areas
• Technical difficulties (e.g. system errors or system crash)
• Limited understanding of platform due to computer illiteracy
• The risk of hackers, viruses, and fraudulent activities may compromise confidential and personal information 
• System may encounter resistance/limited uptake if it is not accompanied by relevant education campaigns

Dear Granville

from my experience with candidates for the last 12 years, where we trying to test the online candidates nomination process, my advice was to keep the manual registration for the first two events, but the system fail to meet our expectation, so we used the manual registration. in all cases I don't advice to rely on the system (for the first time) and should go parallel with manual registration. here are some issues you have to take in consideration.

- security of the system and REALLY  reliable network.

- allow wide candidates\ party education in addition to staff members training.

- Prove that the candidate\ party did submit their documents according to the regulations and procedures.

- if ( as in my case) the candidate has to sign a declaration or to prove read and write condition mentioned in the election law) how that will be achieved?

- review the appeal mechanism to give more time for candidates to appeal the preliminary candidates list. otherwise changing the ballot paper by court decision will be expensive.

-  you can try (for the first time) where the candidates can ask the district offices for support, half way electronic registration.

- keep in mind this is an extra task for the parties which they will not accept or follow easily .

- what about the verification process? we had to deal with the original documents (Education, ID, bank account .... ) as the law requested original copy of these documents signed and approved by official office.

but for sure , you don't need a data entry process for 10.000 candidates. its faster. 

Hope this helps  

It is definitely a good initiative. It is wise to implement is as a pilot wherein even those nominating online should be required to file a printed nomination paper with required annexures at a later date at least for two events. After the pilot succeeds, the online system may be adopted. This will provide an opportunity to make mid course correction. This will also help if internet penetration in the country is not very sound.   

In the state of Maharashtra in India, the State Election Commission has started the online nomination facility for all Local Body elections since 2015.

In the online nomination process, the prospective candidate is asked to register on the website. The candidate can choose username and password as per convenience. To fill up the nomination form, the candidate has to login to the website and enter all details as required on Nomination Form as per law. The candidate has the option of correcting any details as many times as needed. Once all the details are finalized by the candidate, the candidate has to take a printout of the Nomination paper, sign it and physically present it to the Returning Officer.

The response of the candidates was very encouraging even for the smallest local body i.e. Village Panchayat where more than 300,000 candidates filed their nominations using the online process for elections to 7000 Village Panchayats (approximately 50000 seats).

The challenges are - availability of internet connectivity especially in rural areas, familiarity of candidates with computerized processes in local languages for which candidate may need external help.

Je considère cette idée géniale, et je pense que nous devons assortir ces initiatives des mesures rigoureuses de contrôle et surtout de confidentialité.

Toutes fois, j’ai toujours considéré que nos initiatives quelque meilleures devaient être accompagnées ou même dès l’inspiration être vulgarisées afin de fédérer le plus grand nombres des électeurs et mêmes des potentiels candidats.

L’Afrique du Sud semble est mieux équipé et mieux connecté au réseau internet, mais  il reste néanmoins un pays à fort taux d’analphabète et qui sont souvent les élus les plus préférer dans bon nombres des pays africains qui ont décidés de se lancer sur la route de la démocratie.

La vulgarisation et la fédération inclusive de la population sera un atout majeur dans l’implémentation de la chaque initiative électorale.