A two-day seminar on electronic voting (e-voting) and counting technologies concluded in Cape Town on Tuesday, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) said.

The purpose of the event was to stimulate debate on electronic voting and counting, vice-chairman Terry Tselane said in a statement.

“We are confident that our democracy has reached a level of maturity whereby we can have a healthy, robust discussion of the complex issues that require consideration before embarking on the journey of implementing e-voting, should we decide to do so.”

IEC chair Pansy Tlakula said given the trustworthiness and efficacy of the current voting system the IEC needed to be very clear about its reasons for adopting e-voting technology.

“Of significance would be to assess which aspects of the current system require improvement.”

She said the seminar marked the beginning of a constructive discussion with South Africans on the subject of e-voting.

The discussion needed to take into account, among others, issues such as the secrecy of the vote, transparency, and the credibility of such a voting system.

“In particular we need to take into account the cross-national experiences of e-voting shared over the last two days with us and our delegates by Brazil, India, Ireland and the Philippines,” Tlakula said.

“We need to understand the motivation of various countries for their migration to e-voting and learn vicariously from their hard-won lessons.” — Sapa