As the petition in the Supreme Court against the IEBC’s declaration of Deputy President William Ruto as the President-elect in the August 9 election got under way, it was clear that more reforms are necessary to deliver clearer outcomes and reduce contention.
But to find that future of election bliss, Kenya might want to go back to the past and far away from East Africa. It might find an answer in The Gambia.
The West African nation of 2.5 million is the smallest in mainland Africa and virtually surrounded by Senegal, except for an 80-kilometre coastal strip. Its coastline is only longer than Togo’s, which is 56km, and the vast Democratic of Congo’s, which is a minuscule 40km. Colonialists were cruel jokers; how could the second-largest country in Africa, at 2,344,858 square kilometres, and two different time zones, have been given such a small plot for a coastline in the imperialist settlement?
Unique voting system
Anyway, the Gambian voting system is unusual in that it doesn’t use ballot papers. It uses marbles—those tiny glass balls you played with as children. After its December 4, 2021 election, Sierra Leonean-Gambian writer Ade Daramy described The Gambia’s marble voting in a colourful piece on the BBC website:
“Most Gambians I know are quite proud of their unique voting system.
“When they go to the polls on Saturday, December 4, to elect a president, ballot papers will not be used. Instead, on arrival at a polling station, and after their ID has been verified, a voter will be directed to a series of drums painted in the party colours of the different candidates.
“Protruding from the top of each drum is a pipe into which the voter will slot a marble handed over by an election official. In previous elections, like the one in 2016, there were three drums at each polling station to represent three candidates.
“As it drops, a bell sounds, so officials are able to hear if anyone tries to vote more than once. When the polls close, the marbles from each barrel are counted and tallied—as would be done with ballot papers.
“This way of voting was introduced after independence in 1965 because of The Gambia’s high illiteracy rate. A number of reforms have been ushered in since Yahya Jammeh reluctantly left power after losing presidential elections in 2016.
“Some election officials had secretly hoped that ditching marbles would be one of them. They had argued that with the opening up of the democratic space and the possibility of more candidates participating in future elections, the marbles and drums might prove too cumbersome.”
More transparent
Gambians don’t want to let go of their marbles, seeing them as more transparent. They may have a point. You can walk into a polling station with 50 pre-ticked ballot papers to stuff in the box but 50 marbles would raise a hard-to-miss ruckus.
In an increasingly digital-centric Kenya, using marbles, like in The Gambia, could be seen as a return to the cave but several innovations could be made. Technology-filled chips could be implanted in the vote marbles and they would, of course, also be geo-tagged.
Every fingerprint in the Kenya Integrated Election Management System (Kiems) system would activate only one marble. If the marbles were taken away, it would be possible to track where they went or into which river they were thrown, so that they can be retrieved and counted.
But that may not even be necessary. As the smart marble is thrown into a slot, it’s added immediately on a screen to the count. So, if 200 voters show up at a polling station, by the time the last one casts her vote the total number is up on the board.
With the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) having expanded the open portal, and because all polling stations would be networked, within seconds of voting closing, we would be able to see on our screens not just ward, constituency and county results but the presidential one, too, complete with turn-outs. We would not need sweaty-handed election officials counting the marbles.
Spoilt and rejected votes
There are many other advantages. Smart marbles would virtually eliminate spoilt and rejected votes. I mean, what could a voter possibly do with marble? Swallow it?
In the long term, it could also lower the cost of elections considerably because the marbles would be reused for other elections. We would also require fewer election officials to manage elections.
Every party to the election would get a register of the marbles and be able to see from their system how they were being used. That would waive the need for the very inefficient practice of sending thousands of agents to polling stations to keep an eye on things—to “protect the vote”.
The elders said that when hunters learnt to shoot without missing, birds learnt to fly without perching. In this smart marble age, one can fully expect that mischievous people could hack them all in one fell swoop. Anyway, that bridge will be crossed when we get there. BY DAILY NATION