Legal Perspectives on the use of Emerging Technologies in Elections in Africa

This paper investigates the reception, integration, and use of new technologies in the preparation, conduct, and management of elections in Africa. Historically, elections have been manually conducted, but due to a distrust of the system by voters, and the quest for modernization and better ways of doing things, there is a frenzied adoption of new technologies in the electoral system. Although, this is a welcome development, but this paper, however, calls for caution as the deployment of new technologies has elicited mixed reactions, recorded twists and turns, and presented even new challenges. These include another phase of trust deficit by the electorate; the prohibitive cost of acquiring new technologies, and the judicialization of elections, even in some of the advanced countries where new technologies were being used. A better understanding of the intersection between technology and voting is, thus, necessary and imperative to interrogate the circumstances and legal environment in which the emerging technologies are also being used in Africa, so as to understand why and how they have produced unintended consequences. This paper seeks to achieve this through the doctrinal method of legal research.