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[webfact]

Digital democracy the way forward?

By JINTANA PANYAARVUDH 
THE NATION

 

 

Experts believe blockchain technology can end election fraud and save money

 

BLOCKCHAIN and other digital-age technologies, which have played a vital role in the economy and people’s lives, are now bringing new benefits to politics and the electoral process.

 

Tech gurus and academics are urging authorities to use the blockchain technology, best known as the software underlying bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, in managing the voting system for greater participation and usherin in a new era of “digital democracy”.

 

Voting has been identified as one of the 10 major activities and sectors that blockchain will permanently disrupt.

 

Gurus suggest the voting system currently used for various elections makes “little sense in our mobile, connected society”, while applying blockchain technology has the potential to eliminate voter fraud, provide a clearer record of the votes cast and prevent rigged elections.

 

Connecting the technology with politics would help raise awareness of election issues and the election itself, said Yuttaporn Issarachai, a political science lecturer at Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University.

 

 

Instead of travelling to a polling station, blockchain would allow voters to cast their votes via websites or mobile applications, he added.

 

The technology “will help promote ‘digital democracy’ or ‘tele-democracy’,” said Yuttaporn. Blockchain has become an acceptable technology in many countries and its adoption has become a global trend that Thailand could not afford to miss, he said.

 

Blockchain enthusiast Arnat Leemakdej, a professor at Thammasat Business School, said the technology could help prevent election fraud.

 

“Offering such a convenient way [to cast their votes], is likely to increase voter turnout. Perpetrating an election fraud would cost a huge amount of money because of the large number of voters,” he said.

 

“We can make sure that those who are voting are who they claim to be and are legally allowed to vote,” he added.

 

 

The technology could help create transparency, Arnat said, and blockchain’s audit trail would keep track of votes while allowing anyone to verify that no votes were tampered with. Authentication could be done by one-time verification, with voters’ identities stored in the system via encrypted passwords.

 

He singled out a blockchain-based network called “Ethereum”, a public and open-source distributed computing platform, which provides a solution to storing and processing cast votes.

 

“It is very difficult to hack the result, because you would have to hack more than 50 per cent of one million computers to change the results,” he added.

 

It would save money, too. Government could pay a service fee of around Bt15 per voter to the platform, Arnat said. That compares favourably with the last elections that cost around Bt2.8 billion and saw a turnout of around 35 million voters. 

 

"Ballotchain" demo

 

Recently, about 500 people participated in a blockchain demonstration involving the election of a committee to improve the standards of sports coaches and referees in sports under the Department of Physical Education.

 

Arnat, who is an electronic-voting adviser to the department, used the Ethereum platform for the experiment, via the website http://dpe.thaivote.io. Candidates were able to apply on the site, whose administrators approved candidate registrations, and voters cast their ballot there as well. 

 

The trial found that those familiar with using online or mobile banking services had no difficulties with the vote, as it used the same approach: participants first registered and then received a confirmation with an OTP number sent to their mobile phone to verify their identity. The voters then logged on using the ID and password (which the user must remember) and cast their votes. However, the demonstration faced some technical problems, including the loss of an Internet signal, along with features some users found unfriendly or complicated.

 

Wimol Chobchuenchom, director of the Internal Audit Department at Rangsit University who was among the 500 attendees, said the method was convenient for voters. She also trusted the process that verified IDs. Wimol saw transparency as a major benefit, because the results can be rechecked with the system.

 

A bill concerning the sport committee is being considered by the National Legislative Assembly. If approved, an election for the committee will involve more than 200,000 representatives of sport associations nationwide.

 

The technology is already being used in Estonia, the country dubbed “The Digital Republic”, for shareholder voting.

 

The state of West Virginia will become the first in the US to offer blockchain-based mobile voting in a federal election, when deployed military personnel from two counties vote in the upcoming Senate primary election. 

 

How about Thailand?

 

While some people are pushing for modernising all elections using the “ballotchain”, the most cutting-edge technology Thai voters could expect to soon experience is e-voting. 

 

The Election Commission [EC] is planning to provide smartcard readers for use in advance voting for the next election at polling booths in all 350 consistencies.

 

 

“Voters would insert their smart ID cards in the machine to cast their votes. Then the vote will be sent to the EC’s registration centre to record that they have already voted,” said the EC caretaker secretary-general, Pol Colonel Jarungwit Phumma. “This will help prevent repetition of votes, or fraudulent voting under another person’s name.”

 

The EC, which is in charge of organising the election, is concerned about loss of Internet signal that could |disrupt the e-voting process.

 

Yuttaporn, who is an expert on political technology, believes it is possible that we would see blockchain used in an election within the next five years. 

 

“We should not be worried about whether we are ready or not. I don’t see anyone needing instructions on how to use the Line communication app,” Yuttaporn said. He thinks implementation could start with a local election or an election for a political party’s executive board.

 

As Thailand prepares for the next general election expected by February next year, the 2017 Constitution requires that parties hold a primary vote to select MP candidates. The EC decided to make the political parties responsible for the selection, and Arnat suggested that political parties employ the technology.

 

But there are two sides to the coin. Yuttaporn is concerned about the potential harm if a system could be hacked or otherwise has weak security. Thailand still has a digital divide and some people don’t understand the new technology, Yuttaporn conceded. But, he said, people could be educated and the technology could be explained.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/politics/30343268

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-04-17

[scorecard]

 

Voting from home at your own selected time is one thing, possibly very convenient and hopefully would keep party canvassers at a distance.

 

But does this of itself totally stop vote buying? Seems to me the local canvassers will find ways to contact the local folks and they will still find ways to deliver money or whatever to voters.

 

IMHO canvassers and their parties should be very heavily punished, 10M BAht fine for the party and leaders totally banned from any political activity for life, and banned from any form of employment etc., for life in any government linked agency, and 5 years mandatory jail.

 

Canvassers caught 5M Baht fine and mandatory 5 years jail and banned from any political activity for life and banned from any form of employment etc., for life in any government linked agency. 

 

Voters caught accepting money or gifts, 1 year mandatory jail and 1M Baht fine. 

 

 

Edited April 16, 2018 by scorecard

[kannot]

I guess theyll be using the hi tech people who did the  immigration 90 day reporting site then, yeah i can see it  all working  very clearly  now!!

[Crossy]

"Digital democracy", the government extending the middle digit at the people who want democracy.

 

[BigBadGeordie]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

 

Yuttaporn, who is an expert on political technology, believes it is possible that we would see blockchain used in an election within the next five years

So should be fully tested and operational well before the next election date.

If not, I am sure the people can wait a little longer, as this clearly would be a national security issue.

[yellowboat]

15 minutes ago, BigBadGeordie said:

So should be fully tested and operational well before the next election date.

If not, I am sure the people can wait a little longer, as this clearly would be a national security issue.

ATMs and credit cards do not use block chains and they work just fine.  They use databases.  If they wish to jump on the blockchain bandwagon, great, though database have been around much longer and more people know how to operate them. 

[RichardColeman]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

Recently, about 500 people participated in a blockchain demonstration involving the election of a committee to improve the standards of sports coaches and referees in sports under the Department of Physical Education.

But had a shock result when an unnamed military official - not on the voting choice - won by 499 to 1 

[robblok]

37 minutes ago, yellowboat said:

ATMs and credit cards do not use block chains and they work just fine.  They use databases.  If they wish to jump on the blockchain bandwagon, great, though database have been around much longer and more people know how to operate them. 

Databases are easier to hack then blockchain, because they are centralized. Anyway each way has its advantages and disadvantages. 

[yellowboat]

2 minutes ago, robblok said:

Databases are easier to hack then blockchain, because they are centralized. Anyway each way has its advantages and disadvantages. 

Funny that everyone says that Databases are centralized, but most every database can sync to another database.  Mastercard does not just have one database for all its transactions.   When it comes to data mining and transactions world wide, block chains may have an advantage, but there again Bitcoin needs more power to run than power needs of all of New Zealand, from what I have been told.  

[robblok]

3 minutes ago, yellowboat said:

Funny that everyone says that Databases are centralized, but most every database can sync to another database.  Mastercard does not just have one database for all its transactions.   When it comes to data mining and transactions world wide, block chains may have an advantage, but there again Bitcoin needs more power to run than power needs of all of New Zealand, from what I have been told.  

Yes databases can sync to other databases.... but if you don't know your hacked the uncontaminated database will be contaminated by the other database. 

 

I am not saying its easy otherwise mastercard would have his problems.. just saying its easier. 

[Expatthailover]

3 hours ago, kannot said:

I guess theyll be using the hi tech people who did the  immigration 90 day reporting site then, yeah i can see it  all working  very clearly  now!!

Ah guesswork...favourite passtime for those lacking facts

[Srikcir]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

The Election Commission [EC] is planning to provide smartcard readers for use in advance voting for the next election at polling booths in all 350 consistencies.

The EC currently is not an Independent Organization aka Constitutional Organization. Its current members exist only because the junta-appointed NLA allowed them an exception to the constitutional requirement that they be terminated at the end of their constitutionally mandated term. As such the current EC lacks independence. I believe the legality of their continued employment is being challenged in court.

 

In light of Prayut's public "interest" in becoming the next PM and several new political parties pledging their support for Prayut as the next PM, there exists a conflict of interest with the current EC introducing an electronic voter-related process created under its auspices that has the potential for manipulation to "benefit" Prayut.

 

Bring in a foreign independently created secure voter-related process? Sorry, has no "Thainess." That was the reason the CDC rejected Germany's MMP electoral process for use in Thailand. Instead the CDC created a unique MMA electoral process not used by any nation. I'd expect the same from the EC who is in frequent "consultations" with the junta-appointed Chairman of the CDC Meechai who at times seems to direct the EC.

[Krataiboy]

Not everyone has a smartphone and making them obligatory would almost certainly require a controversial new law.

[scorecard]

8 minutes ago, Krataiboy said:

Not everyone has a smartphone and making them obligatory would almost certainly require a controversial new law.

 

But possibly bring an opportunity for the tricky local party people to offer access to smartphones, with strict specific instructions on which buttons to use of course.

 

 

[khunken]

Well they can always get True Move to run the process. Their security has no equal.

 

:-)

 

Why doesn't the emoticons button work?