An election is a core part of any global democracy. Elections provide citizens with the opportunity to voice their opinions. South Africa achieved democracy for the first time in 1994 and has had four successful national elections since then. All of these elections have been declared “free and fair” according to the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC). However, there have been various challenges facing the current South African electoral process. This research, therefore examines alternative methods to improve the current South African electoral process. This research firstly identifies the various challenges and characteristics associated with the current electoral process in South Africa. This research study proposes, to incorporate Information and Communication Technology (ICT) into the South African electoral process. Thus, arguing that utilizing ICT could potentially improve the process. Various countries worldwide have investigated different methods to improve their electoral processes. Countries such as India, Brazil, Estonia and the USA have incorporated ICT into their electoral processes, known as electronic voting (e-voting). Therefore, this research study investigates countries such as India, Brazil, Estonia and the USA which opted to implement e-voting into their electoral process. In addition, various e-voting technologies and their capabilities are explored in detail in this research study. The conclusions drawn from the examination of the electoral processes of countries that utilize e-voting, contributed to the achievement of the primary objective in this research. As a result, to address the various challenges facing the current electoral process in South Africa, a process model was developed called an E-voting Process Model, which depicts two electoral processes namely, an optical scan polling station voting process and an online voting process. This research argues that the E-voting Process Model could potentially improve the current electoral process in South Africa.

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Technology: Information Technology, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2015. / This thesis focuses on the development of an enhanced innovative secure mobile Internet voting system architecture that offers desirable security requirements to theoretically mitigate some of the intrinsic administrative and logistical challenges of voting, inter alia lack of mobility support for voters, voter inconvenience, election misconduct, and possible voter coercion often associated with the conventional poll-site voting system. Systems in existence have tended to revolve around the need to provide ubiquitous voting, but lack adequate control mechanism to address, in particular, the important security requirement of controlling possible coercion in ubiquitous voting. The research work reported in this thesis improves upon a well-developed Sensus reference architecture. It does so by leveraging the auto-coupling capability of near field communication, as well as the intrinsic merits of global positioning system, voice biometric authentication, and computational intelligence techniques. The leveraging of the combination of these features provides a theoretical mitigation of some of the security challenges inherent in electoral systems previously alluded to. This leveraging also offers a more pragmatic approach to ensuring high level, secure, mobile Internet voting such as voter authentication. Experiments were performed using spectral features for realising the voice biometric based authentication of the system architecture developed. The spectral features investigated include Mel-frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCC), Mel-frequency Discrete Wavelet Coefficients (MFDWC), Linear Predictive Cepstral Coefficients (LPCC), and Spectral Histogram of Oriented Gradients (SHOG). The MFCC, MFDWC and LPCC usually have higher dimensions that oftentimes lead to high computational complexity of the pattern matching algorithms in automatic speaker authentication systems. In this study, higher dimensions of each of the features were reduced per speaker using Histogram of Oriented Gradients (HOG) algorithm, while neural network ensemble was utilised as the pattern-matching algorithm. Out of the four spectral features investigated, the LPCC-HOG gave the best statistical results with an R statistic of 0.9257 and Mean Square Error of 0.0361. These compact LPCC-HOG features are highly promising for implementing the authentication module of the secure mobile Internet voting system architecture reported in this thesis. / D

No description available.

Ever since union - and before - black South Africans have been excluded from parliament, provincial councils and other law-making bodies. This means that blacks have never participated in the electoral process. The voting (electoral) system - its nature and workings - remained the sole preserve of white political parties and the Apartheid government of the day. As a result of a conjuncture of circumstances (as per Harare Declaration), the African National Congress and the apart0heid government are now engaged in talks. Hopefully this will ultimately lead to negotiations towards a new Constitution which will make provision for a single unitary, non-racial, non-sexist South Africa with universal franchise on one single common voters roll and one person one vote. Part of the process of constitution-making for such a South Africa, will be the working out of a system of voting, an electoral system, which would be appropriate for the country. The African National Congress has recognised the need for a multi-party system, the right of all other political forces and organisations to organise and to compete for power on the political terrain. The ANC also recognises that all parties enjoying significant support should have the right to be represented in a Constituent Assembly and parliament. The question which needs to be resolved is: What would be an appropriate electoral system to achieve the stated objec0tive? It is to place the issue before the people of our country and to ensure participation at the widest levels by all the organisa0tions of the people in the process of constitution-making (including formulating and/or agreeing upon an acceptable system of voting), that the African National Congress, Community Law Centre (University of the Western Cape) and the Centre for Development Studies have organised a conference to be held in the Western Cape on 2 - 4 NOVEM0BER 1990. This conference will not be a decision-making one. nor will there be any resolutions at the end of the conference. The objective is to facilitate meaningful discussions throughout the country. To facilitate this process, we present a discussion document entitled "ELECTORAL SYSTEMS: A CRITICAL SURVEY" which has been prepared by Professor KADER ASMAL, a member of the Constitutional Committee of the ANC and Professor of Law at Trinity College, Dublin. It is hoped that arising from these discussions, there will be more meaningful discussions and consultations amongst or0ganisations such as trade unions, civic organisations, women’s organisations and other sectoral or0ganisations - ultimately leading to a situation which we would be better able to decide on an acceptable, unity building and democratic electoral system. / "The Community Law Centre (UWC) & Centre for Development Studies in conjunction with the ANC Constitutional Committee."--Cover

Voting enables certain formal decisions to be made through the participation of a given population; and it is the vital part of a democratic process. The method of voting used in South Africa (SA) today is derived from the Australian ballot system. This paper-based voting system, however, is slow, convoluted and inaccurate because of human errors; it is costly and largely inefficient. In the early 1900s, election officials overwhelmingly decided to use electronic voting (E-voting) systems to solve some of the problematic issues of paper-based voting systems. Mobile voting (M-voting) is a subset of E-voting; and it allows citizens to use their mobile phones to cast their votes. Very few countries have endeavoured to implement M-voting, in order to improve mobility and simplify the election procedures. Despite several M-voting initiatives reported worldwide; insufficient attention has been devoted to understanding the factors that influence the success or failure of M-voting implementation. It is also important to note that the implementation of M-voting may be very difficult; if the different modalities that aid successful M-voting implementation are not in place. This study seeks to develop a framework that has the potential to enable the successful implementation of M-voting in SA. The proposed framework is an IT artefact that endeavors to improve human experiences for voting. This study followed a Design-Science approach; and it made use of a case study to collect the data via a literature review, observations, questionnaires, focus groups and expert reviews. The study revealed that there is no institutional, legal and regulatory framework for the proliferation of M-voting in SA. Successful M-voting implementation depends on a compendium of factors, which may be unique in the local context where it is implemented. The framework that resulted from the above was assessed for validity and applicability; after which a modified framework was presented. The research concludes with specific implementation guidelines, as well as areas for future research.

A Research Report presented to the Graduate School of Business of the University of Stelienbosch in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Business Administration / Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2006. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Certain companies in South Africa have dual classes of shares listed on the JSE Securities Exchange i.e. ordinary shares and N shares. Ordinary listed shares, nonmally holds one vote per share, are referred to as superior voting shares. Restricted voting shares have restricted voting benefits to the shareholders, in some cases one vote casting for thousand shares held. Some companies have listed N shares on the JSE Securities Exchange; these are the South African shares with restricted voting powers. A total of 34 companies have issued low voting shares in South Africa, 2 companies started as far back as 1990. Naspers Limited is the only company that has listed only low voting shares. This study investigates the justification for companies issuing low voting shares by comparing the price performance of these shares and also investigates the justification for shares with restricted voting rights. Tests are conducted to detenmine whether a premium is paid for South African superior voting shares by comparing the share prices of superior voting shares and restricted voting shares on the same day of trading on the JSE Securities Exchange. Various parties in the South African business community have opinions and arguments against and in favour of low voting shares; the reasons for the issuing of low voting shares are under scrutiny. In addition to the above mentioned tests the factors influencing the voting premium have also been investigated. The benefits of restricted shares are also investigated. The results of tests conducted on dual share classes trading in South Africa are compared with the results of similar studies on share price information of dual share classes trading on international stock exchanges. The findings of the study are: Ordinary listed shares are trading at a premium comparing to restricted voting shares, in South Africa the premium is calculated at 9.83%; The payment of dividends to shareholders does not influence the share premium; The ratio of ordinary shares in relation to total shares issued does not influence the VRP of a company; The capitalisation of company, in other words the outstanding number of ordinary shares valued at the market price, does not influence the voting premium; and Companies being controlled by families or major shareholding groups are more likely to issue shares with restricted voting rights; The conclusion of the study is that the limited benefits are offered to the owners of the companies that have issued the dual classes of shares and not to the investors' public. These owners of superior voting shares have utilised restricted voting shares to remain in control of the companies and get access to relative cheap investors funding. Restricted voting shares' popularity declined to the end of 1992, the phenomenon is consistent with demise of restricted voting shares in France / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Sommige Suid Afrikaanse genoteerde maatskappye het verskillende klasse aandele genoteer op JSE Securities Exchange. Daar word tel kens na gewone genoteerde aandele verwys as aandele met superieure stem reg, die aandele sal sonder uitsondering een stem hou vir elke uitgereikte gewone aandeel. In Suid-Afrika staan aandele met beperkte stem reg bekend as N-aandele. Die betrokke aandele het nie dieselfde stem reg voordele as gewone aandele nie en kan tot een stem per duisend uitgereikte aandele dra. 'n Totaal van 34 maatskappye het beide klasse aandele genoteer, Naspers Beperk is die enigste maatskappy wat slegs aandele met beperkte stemreg genoteer het. Die verhandeling ondersoek of daar enige geldige rede is vir die uitreiking van aandele met beperkte stem reg. 'n Ondersoek word geloods deur te kyk na die prysgedrag van die twee verskillende tipes aandele naamlik gewone en Naandele. Die redes vir enige prysafwykings word ook ondersoek. 'n Vergelykings tussen die aandelepryse van aandele met superieure stemreg en aandele met beperke stemreg (soos genoteer op die JSE Securities Exchange) word gedoen om te bepaal of aandele met superieure stem reg teen 'n premie verhandel. Verskeie partye het argumente en opinies teen en ten gunste van die gebruik van aandele met beperkte stemreg. die redes vir die uitreiking van aandele met beperkte stem reg word onder die vergrootglas geplaas. In Verdere ondersoek na die faktore wat verantwoordelik kon wees vir die premieverskil tussen aandeelpryse van aandele met superior stemregte en aandele met beperkte stemregte word ook gedoen. Daar word ook ondersoek of daar enige voardele is vir die uitreik van aandele met beperkte stemreg. Die studie sluit af met 'n vergelyking van die resultate in 'n Suid-Afrikaanse beleggingingomgewing met die resultate van soorgelyke studies wat gedoen is op aandeleinligting van verskeie intemasionale aandelebeurse waar aandele met beide superieure en beperkte stem reg genoteer is. Die bevindinge van die studie is as volg: Gewone genoteerde aandele (aandele met superieure stemreg) soos genoteer op die JSE Securities Exchange verhandel teen 'n premie van 9.83% oor die tydperk onder oorskou in vergelyking met aandele met beperkte stemreg. Die beta ling van dividende aan aandeelhouers speel geen rol op die grootte van die pryspremie in die verhandeling van gewone genoteerde aandele en aandele met beperkte stem reg. Die verhouding tussen gewone aandele in verhouding to totale aandele uitgereik speel nie 'n rol in die grote van die pryspremie nie; Die kapitalisasie van die maatskappye, met ander word die uitstaande gewone genoteerde aandele teen markprys, speel geen rol in die graolle van die pryspremie nie; en Die aandeelhouersstruktuur speel 'n ral in die uitreiking van aandele met beperkte stemreg. Maatskappye wat beheer word deur families of graot houermaatskappye is geneig om aandele met beperkte stemreg uit te reik. Die gevolgtrekking van die studie is dat aandele met beperkte stemreg wei voordele het, in die geval nie vir die breer beleggingspubliek nie maar wei vir persone of instansies in beheer van die spesifieke maatskappye met beide klasse aandele. Aandele met beperkte stemreg is gebruik am toegang te verkry tot goedkoop befondsing sander am beheer van die maatskappye te verloor. Aandele met beperkte stemreg se gewildheid het begin afneem, nie net in Suid-Afrika nie maar oak in Frankryk waar baie maatskappye besluil hel om weg Ie doen mel die soort aandele.

M. Tech. Information Technology / Voting is a widely spread and democratic way of making decisions. For centuries, South Africa has been using the popular paper-based voting system though it does not provide the desirable blend of accessibility and efficiency. Missing ballot papers, invalid votes and miscount are some of the challenges that come with the paper-based voting system. Time is precious to everyone and correct information is even more precious in the fast-paced information technology era. Merging all these together we look in for easier, effective, efficient and time managing way of casting a vote. Mobile phones facilitate communication and rapid access to information and their diffusion has reached a larger proportion of the population in a short period of time. In this thesis, we propose designing and developing a mobile phone voting system, which allows users to vote spontaneous and timeous, using existing mobile phone networks and technologies via their mobile phones.

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2000. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Over the past three decades the practice of international election observation has shifted its focus from elections taking place within a decolonialisation context, to those in independent, but formerly undemocratic, states. The latter accepted the presence of international observers with some reservation, citing the contention that observation amounted to an infringement on national sovereignty. The demise of the former East Block, however, established the primacy of the liberal democratic ideology in world politics, leaving these states with a limited choice between democratisation and isolation. Pro-democracy supporters in former authoritarian countries embraced the change in ideological climate. Realising the lack of capacity and trust to run elections by themselves, they generally supported the presence of international observers in elections of states emerging from prolonged periods of authoritarianism. Over the past decade this affinity with international missions has been transformed into skepticism. Three primary reasons for this disenchantment have been the apparent lack of electoral standards, uncoordinated observer missions and failure to convince voters of their impartiality. This assignment represents a scholarly attempt to evaluate the contributions of international election observers to South African elections. On a theoretical level it addresses the three criticisms against foreign observation. Drawing on the vast body of international literature, the author suggests three countermeasures. These suggestions, aimed at enhancing the contributions of international observer consist of: 1) a greater consideration for the political context within which an election takes place; 2) the pooling of international observer capacity and 3) more scope to, and cooperation with, local observer groups. Each of these measures is transferred to the South African electoral reality to establish the extent of their application in this practical context. With regard to the first proposal the author finds that clear consideration has been given to contextual factors in both elections. An assessment of the quality of coordination of international observer groups also indicates that the practice of pooling resources have been employed with success by a number of missions. In this field the U.N. played a leading role. Cooperation between international observers and their local counterparts is however an aspect that has been lagging behind. The opportunity for capacity building, a significant benefit of such cooperation, has therefore to a large extent been lost. In the light of this, and the uncertainty of future international involvement, the author asserts that in future South Africans will increasingly be dependent on the cultivation of homegrown capacity. He therefore believes that initiatives such as the creation of the SADC Electoral Forum in 1998 are commendable and should be encouraged. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die fokus van internasionale verkiesingwaarneming het in die loop van die laaste drie dekades wesenlik verskuif van die tradisionele dekolonisasie verkiesingskonteks, na waarneming binne onafhanklike state waar die omskakeling van outoritêre na demokratiese regeringsvorms redelik onlangs plaasgevind het. Laasgenoemde state moes waarnemers, en die verkiesings wat waargeneem is, met voorbehoud aanvaar. Die alternatiewe was egter beperk. Die val van die voormalige Oosblok en die gevolglike triomf van die liberale demokrasie, het ondemokratiese state met 'n eenvoudige keuse gelaat: hervorm of staar isolasie in die gesig. Pro-demokratiese groepe in voormalige outoritêre state het die nuwe klimaat van politieke vryheid verwelkom. In die besef dat nuwe demokrasieë waarskynlik nie oor die nodige ervaring en wedersydse vertroue binne die bevolking beskik om verkiesings volkome te laat vlot nie, is buitelandse bystand - met inbegrip van internasionale waarneming - deur dié groepe verwelkom. In die afgelope dekade het die positiewe konnotasie aan internasionale verkiesingswaarneming egter in gedrang gekom. Drie kernredes hiervoor was die skynbare gebrek aan universele verkiesingstandaarde, swak georganiseerde waarnemer afvaardigings en 'n algemene gebrek om hul motiewe bo verdenking te plaas. Die sentrale oogmerk van hierdie werkstuk is die evaluasie van die bydraes gemaak deur internasionale verkiesingswaarnemers in die twee Suid-Afrikaanse verkiesings van 1994 en 1999. Op 'n teoretiese vlak is die drie bogenoemde gebreke aangespreek, en na raadpleging van internasionale literatuur oor die onderwerp is drie teenmaatreëls geidentifiseer. Hierdie aktiwiteite, gemik op meer effektiewe internasionale betrokkenheid bestaan uit: 1) groter aandag wat geskenk moet word aan politeke konteks; 2) die kombinering van internasionale waarnemer vaardighede vir beter resultate, en 3) groter klem wat gelê moet word op samewerking tussen nasionale en internasionale waarnemers. Elkeen van hierdie vereistes is oorgedra na die Suid-Afrikaanse verkiesingskonteks om vas te stel tot watter mate dié gebruike in Suid-Afrika wortel geskied het. Wat betref die eerste voorstel met betrekking tot konteksgebonde evaluasie, is daar vasgestel dat dit wel deel was van internasionale waarnemer praktyk in beide verkiesings. 'n Waardeskatting van die koordinasie van internasionale waarnemingsgroepe dui verder daarop dat samewerking tussen waarnemergroepe oor die algemeen bygedra het tot 'n versterking van inisiatiewe deur internasionale waarnemers. Op hierdie gebied het die Verenigde Nasies veral 'n sleutelrol gespeel. 'n Aspek wat egter agterweë gebly het, is die vlak van samewerking tussen internasionale waarnemers en hul Suid- Afrikaanse eweknieë. Hier is 'n waardevolle geleentheid verspeel om die kapasiteit van plaaslike verkiesingswaarnemers te versterk. Dit, en die feit dat toekomstige internasionale teenwoordigheid in die toekoms nie 'n sekerheid is nie, sal volgens die skrywer, beteken dat Suid-Afrikaners in die toekoms toenemend aangewese sal wees op die ontwikkeling van eie kapasiteit. In die lig hiervan moet inisiatiewe soos SAOG se nuutgestigte Verkiesingsforum verwelkom en aangemoedig word.

Two of the post apartheid elections held in South Africa (1994, 1999) have been used as mechanisms to analyse and assess the extent to which the country’s transition from apartheid to a democratic dispensation is succeeding or not. The primary analytical focus of the 1994 and 1999 elections has revolved around the nature of the party system and voting behaviour. Basically, contestation has arisen over two primary and related issues: the dominance of the African National Congress (ANC) weighed against the weakness of opposition parties and the implications that this development has for effective democratic consolidation. Also, whether voting decisions based on divisive racial and ethnic identities that underlie electoral contests are pervasive enough to derail the process of democratisation. Generally, the primary conclusion has been that the unfolding pattern of South African electoral politics indicates sufficient grounds on which to doubt the prospects for effective democratic consolidation. This dissertation engages these debates with particular reference to the 2004 elections. In contrast to this pessimistic view of the prospects of successful democratisation in South Africa it upholds through an analysis of the 2004 elections the view that there is insufficient empirical evidence, to conclude that South Africa’s democratisation process is imperiled. It maintains that although there are problems related to the to the nature of the party system and some elements of voting behaviour there is enough countervailing evidence revealed by the 2004 election results that this does not present a substantially serious threat to the prospects of South Africa attaining a democratic society.

Bibliography: pages [156]-159. / I have written this dissertation as an empirical study of the African National Congress' (ANC) 1994 election campaign in South Africa's Western Cape Province. Primarily, I address one overriding question: what are the principal reasons for and ramifications of the AN C's inability to win control of the province? I begin by exploring key factors concerning the history, demographics, electoral system and pre-campaign voter attitudes of the province that may have influenced how the party developed and implemented its strategy. I describe the evolution of the campaign, including strategic decisions made before and during its execution, and analyze the content of appeals to voters. I then assess the extent to which the above factors may have affected the campaign and examine the election results. I conclude by offering plausible implications of this case for future ANC campaigns in the Western Cape.