Abstract:

The undisputable benefits of Technology implementation in the electoral systems of advanced democracies like those of Europe and the United States of America, have been applauded and heralded by the international community. But since the year 2012 when Cameroon set out to incorporate Technology in its electoral processes, the fruits are insignificant as the system is plagued by a fleet of electoral Information and Communication Technology (ICT) challenges. This paper investigates the ICT gaps and their consequences on the electoral outcomes in the country.

The findings reveal that a fragile electoral ICT implementation system accounts for the poor sensitization and civic education, inappropriate constituency delimitation, mediocre voter registration, uncertain voter verification and voting, rudimentary vote counting and computation, and unsatisfactory dissemination of elections results in the country.

To address these shortcomings, this article proposes a comprehensive ICT-enhanced electoral system that incorporates training elections officers on the techniques of electoral digital technology, procurement of the crucial ICT devices, and setting them up in the respective field branch offices.

Keywords: ICT, ELECAM, Technology, Election, E-voting, EMB, Cameroon.

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