CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.0 Introduction
Districts around the world are increasingly considering the replacement of traditional paper-based
voting schemes with electronic voting systems (Willem, Spencer & Saurav & 2016). A particular
form of such e-voting systems is one which allow voters to cast their votes over the internet, so-
called remote mobile voting systems also known as m-voting systems. In this project, the general
term e-voting will be used in reference to remote e-voting over the internet, and with voting the
researchers refer to polls, elections, referenda, and other forms of collective decision making.
Thus, Willem, Spencer and Saurav (2016) define an m-Voting System as a web-based system that
facilitates the running of elections and surveys online.

Mobile voting is an electronic way of choosing leaders via a web driven application. The
advantage of mobile voting over the common queue method is that the voters have the choice of
voting at their own free time and there is reduced congestion. It also minimizes on errors of vote
counting. The individual votes are submitted to a database which can be queried to find out who of
the aspirants for a given post has the highest number of votes.

Willem, Spencer and Saurav (2016) asserted that for an m-voting system to be ideal, four attributes
must be satisfied: anonymity, scalability, speed, and accuracy. Therefore, the voters m-Voting
system has been developed to simplify the process of organizing voters elections in the Busia
district and make it convenient for voters to vote remotely from their personal smart mobile
phones, laptops, computers in the computer laboratories or home computers while taking into
consideration security, anonymity and providing auditing capabilities.

1.1 Background of the study

In Uganda, every district such as Busia district elects’ leaders every after five years to represent
interests of the voters in parliament and district administrative meetings (Xoddo, 2019). Voters
leadership posts at Busia district include; a district chairperson, the counsellors and member of
parliament
The voting process at Busia district usually has inconsistencies and inconveniences which have
made the whole process inefficient hence leading to dissatisfaction of various involved parties
(Xoddo, 2019). These inconsistencies and inconveniences include corruption, long queues to cast
votes, records not being well kept, long time taken during vote counting, just to mention but a few.
All these mentioned above leads to false results produced. In this project, the voters m-Voting
system enhances an electronic way of choosing leaders remotely via internet enabled devices such
as a smart mobile phone or laptop. It minimizes on errors of vote counting. The individual votes
are submitted to a database which can be queried to find out who of the aspirants for a given post
has the highest number of votes.

The system is also geared towards increasing the voting percentage in the district since it has been
noted that with the old voting method (the Queue System), the voter turnup has been a wanting
case.

1.1 Problem Statement

The current voting system at Busia district involves a lot of lengthy paper work procedures and
requires voters to move to the polling stations in order to cast their vote. This lengthy process is
tiresome and time consuming, which increases the rate of voters’ absenteeism from voting. The
voters e-Voting system therefore provides an easier way of voting that does not require ones’
physical presence in order to cast their vote.

1.2 Objectives
1.2.1 Main Objective
The main objective is to develop a voters e-Voting system that enables the voters of Busia district
to easily and conveniently vote for their leaders remotely.

1.2.2 Specific Objectives

The specific objectives of the project include the following:

i. To review literature and carry out a study about the current voting system used at Busia
district, analyse and identify the requirements for the voters e-Voting system for Busia
district.
 ii. To design the voters e-Voting system that enables the voters of Busia district to vote for
their leaders remotely.

iii. To implement the voters e-Voting system that enables the voters of Busia district to vote
for their leaders remotely.
iv. To test and validate the voters e-Voting system.

1.3 Scope of Study

1.3.1 Content Scope
The study concentrated on the implementation of the voters e-Voting system, which enabled the
voters of Busia district to vote for their leaders remotely. It provides the online registration form
for the users before voting and makes the users to cast their votes online. The system is user
friendly and has high security features.

1.3.2 Geographical Scope

The study was conducted at Busia district, Uganda. The google map coordinates of Busia district
are 0.4045° North, 34.0196° East Busia district is located in the eastern part of Uganda.

1.3.3 Time scope

The study involved the use of data related to the topic under investigation from January 2022 to
June 2022. This time range was suitable for arriving at correct conclusions.

1.4 Significance
Internet voting allows the casting of electronic ballots from virtually any location around the
world, helping to reduce voters’ absenteeism rate. Thus, the voters e-Voting system enables voters
to easily, remotely and conveniently vote for their chosen leaders.

The district incurs minimal costs when the voters e-Voting system is used compared to the much
costs that were incurred on printing papers such as ballot papers. Thus, other districts with in the
Uganda can also adopt the new technology, the voters e-Voting system.

The findings of the study contributed to existing stock of knowledge as far as e-Voting systems are
concerned. Future researchers on related studies will use this study for domain knowledge
enhancement.