Blockchain-Powered E-Voting: A Pathway to SDG 16 Transparent and Inclusive Elections

Transparency, security, and access to electoral systems across the world constitute the main problems that create challenges for achievement under Sustainable Development Goal 16's vision of inclusive institutions. This paper investigates the possibility of blockchain-based electronic voting systems to meet the challenges of transparency, verifiability, and access towards conducting elections. To this end, we adopted a mixed-methods approach comprising a comprehensive literature review, conducting case studies based on the blockchain voting pilots, and interviewing election officials as well as blockchain developers. Our findings established that blockchain-based e-voting can enhance significantly electoral integrity with immutable record-keeping, end-to-end verifiability, and easier accessibility to remote and disabled voters. Nevertheless, challenges include the problem of scalability, the digital divide, and voter privacy concerns. Robust identity verification systems and user-friendly interfaces should be critical success factors in implementation. From the analysis, we conclude that even though blockchain e-voting shows promise in acceleration toward the achievement of SDG 16 goals, its effective deployment would require a phased approach—starting with small-scale elections with incremental scaling up. The present study contributes to the growing literature on digital democracy and provides practical guidelines for policymakers and election authorities seeking to address blockchain in electoral processes.