E-voting versus e-trust: A case for e-democracy in Palestine

The world at present is facing a number of real challenges in the face of persistent economic crisis, local conflicts and huge waves of refugees. All of the above are affecting secure access to and completion of peoples voting rights. The relevant technological solutions appear to have matured and have successfully responded to rigorous testing. The need for digital access to election events is probably higher than ever in digital age. The question that remains to be answered is whether all this enough to inspire people to trust the systems and participate amass in e-voting particularly in areas where the political climate might be volatile. Palestinian have been scattered across the world since the late 1940s. This forced diaspora creates particular challenges as the Palestinian Authority (PA) continues to gain international recognition as an emerging state. The PA is experiencing a huge difficulty in enabling its citizens to elect their representative. According to PA officials many countries who are hosting Palestinians as refugees don’t accept the facilitation of elections for representatives to the PA government. Using e-voting systems could offer a solution to overcoming this problem and the PA has been evaluating such systems since 2011. The inspiration for this paper is taken from the results of an extensive survey conducted by the authors to evaluate the response amongst Palestinians around the world to the Palestinian Authority’s decision to fully embrace e-Voting

The Main Factors Affecting E-voting Service Implementation: The Case of Palestine

The world at present is facing a number of serious challenges in the face of persistent economic crisis, local conflicts and endless waves of refugees. All of the above are affecting secure access to and completion of peoples voting rights. The relevant technological solutions appear to have matured and have successfully responded to rigorous testing. The question that remains to be answered is how an e-government service such as e-voting can be successfully implemented within complex political environment such as Palestine. Palestinians have been scattered across the world since the late 1940s, making the Palestinian authority experience a serious difficulties in enabling its citizens to elect their representatives. The inspiration for this paper has been taken from the results of the analysis of 19 in-depth interviews with public sector, private sector and policy influencers

Towards Effective E-voting System for Refugees: Lessons from the Case of Palestine

Significant global challenges related to persistent economic crises, local conflicts and continuous waves of refugees being displaced from their countries of origin are affecting secure access to and completion of people’s voting rights. The relevant technological solutions appear to have matured and have successfully responded to rigorous testing, however, there are still doubts as to the success of these e-democracy solutions in complex political environments. Since the late 1940s, Palestinians have been scattered across the world thus creating particular challenges relating to the democratic process for this diaspora community. In an effort to address this issue, the Palestinian Authority has started its e-government project since 2001 but at the current time, the project has failed to deliver its objectives. This study is using a mixed method research methodology for the purpose of obtaining rich interpretive insights to understand the above-mentioned particular phenomenon, by conceptualising it as a socio-political issue. Analysis of the contextual factors affecting e-government implementation in Palestine will enhance our understanding of the underlying forces that promote or hinder e-government projects in general. In this regard, although previous studies have examined some factors related to e-government as a tool for the dissemination of governmental information, there is a need to address e-voting (as a specific e-government service) and the challenges of introducing e-democracy into the unique contextual circumstances such as those represented by the Palestinian situation. The results of this research would clarify the policy-making processes influencing e-government implementation projects in other complex contextual circumstances such as other refugee communities seeking participation in their political processes