Use of ICTs in Uganda's Elections

The 2011 Uganda Elections have been characterized by mass use of Information Technologies (IT). This started months before elections, with the Electoral commission Publishing Voter Registers online . This enabled Voters to Check for their Designated Polling Stations and Verify their personal and Polling Station Details online and through Short Messaging Services (SMS).

Then there was the months running up to elections when Crowd Sourcing Platforms like http://www.ugandawatch2011.org run by the Democracy Monitoring Group (DEMGroup) and the Ushahidi Powered http://www.uchaguzi.co.ug  being run by Citizens Election Watch-Information Technology (CEW-IT) were setup. These Platforms do aggregation of real-time information sent by Citizens; a concept known as Crowd-sourcing.

Crowd-sourcing

For those not familiar with Crowd-sourcing, think of how you can be in Kampala and wish to know what is happening in Gulu. Usually you will have to wait for the next TV or Radio bulletin by which time the situation can be different or a script edited. Now, What if someone in Gulu were able to send an SMS which could be plotted on a map that is accessible online....that would be cool...right? Now think of one person doing the same from every District. How much information could that would be? With a glance at a map you would be able to keep abreast with activities in disparate locations in Near Real-time - this is what we call Crowd-sourcing.

Map from Uganda Watch

One of the most widely used Crowd sourcing Platforms internationally, is Ushahidi. This Software Platform was Developed in Kenya and was used during the Kenyan Referendum, The Tanzania Elections last year, For coordination of relief Aid in Haiti and in the Election in India. This is the same platform powering Uchaguzi and Parts of Uganda Watch (Screen shot)

Moving on

Then there was election day when all the media houses were on a frenzy to feed their Twitter and Facebook followers on realtime information. From images of senior Citizens finding alternative uses for Sauce Pans to tallying results from every corner, the information flow was great and in most cases corroborated by other sources lending credence to the practice.

With only one or two incidents of misreporting, the overall flow of information was overwhelming. The press and Social Network Savvy Citizens took it upon themselves to feed the most up todate information through all the online channels at their discretion.

I cannot speak for Democracy and fairness of Elections as that is outside the purview of this Blog, but I believe harnessing the power of ICTs brought about steady streams of information which can be difficult to alter without leaving a trace given the existence of a digital footprint. I am sure more adoption of ICT will help in making the Country more Transparent and Accountable in the future. Look forward to this.