Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is with great pleasure that I find myself in this mythical place, the Sorbonne, to participate with you in the reflection on the theme of electronic democracy in the framework of the twenty-third international conference of data protection commissioners.

I would like to thank President Gentot and all the organisers of this session for having associated me with this work of such great interest, as the use of the New Technologies of Information and Communication (NTIC) constitutes an opportunity to ensure harmonious development in different areas linked to the evolution of the world in general, and the developing countries in particular.

Allow me to go directly to the reflections that I would like to share with you today on electronic democracy. I will attempt to illustrate my reflection by the practical case of the experience of the latest electoral jousts in Senegal where the one in the year 2000 resulted in the first political alternance in the country.  The electoral process often gives rise to passion and much controversy. The pre-electoral period of the legislative poll of 1998 in Senegal is an illustration of this. In fact, the elections of 1998, which followed those, rather criticized, of 1996 allowed us to experiment the electoral measures implemented by the authorities some months earlier.

A military person, who by his status is apolitical, was, for the first time in the history of Senegal, appointed Minister of the Interior, to organise the elections with the necessary transparency and sincerity.

A directorate general of elections with all the electoral competences of this department was set up at the heart of the Ministry of the Interior.  It should be said that, until then, the competences of the Ministry of the Interior were spread between different structures of this department [Direction of general affairs and territorial administration (DAGAT), Direction of automation of files (DAF), Direction of local collectivities (DCL), Direction of general affairs and equipment (DAGE), Cabinet of the Minister]. The co-ordination in electoral matters was done at the level of the cabinet of the Minister and/or ad hoc structures.

A National Observatory of Elections (ONEL), an independent organ constituted of 9 members charged with supervising the elections, was implemented.

With such a system one might think that the way was paved towards peaceful elections. But that is without counting the tensions which accompany any electoral process and the desire, for each group of actors involved, to get out of a difficult situation and to play its role fully, sometimes through making extravagant promises.

THE PROBLEM: CONTROVERSIES AROUND THE CONTENT OF THE ELECTORAL FILE.

A few weeks from the elections a lively controversy broke out, between the ONEL and the Ministry of the Interior on the subject of the content of the electoral file.

The Observatory accused the Ministry of the Interior of giving it access to a file different from the one on which its technicians were working. Despite efforts to surmount the situation, the controversy, nourished by the political parties and widely covered by the media, was a factor which exacerbated tensions.

It should be known that the electoral file has been computerized since 1977 and the electoral lists are subject to either ordinary or exceptional (in electoral years) revisions.

THE SOLUTION: RESORTING TO INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY OR STANDARDIZING ACCESS TO THE FILE.

It was at that moment that two major initiatives were taken in order to calm the spirits.

The installation of terminals

Firstly, terminals were installed in Dakar and in certain public places in the regions to allow any elector, who so desired, to have access to the file.  Three political parties [RND - « Rassemblement National Démocratique » - (founded by Professor Cheikh Anta Diop and led by another Professor, Madior Diouf), the MSU - « Mouvement pour le Socialisme et l’Unité » - (of President Mamadou Dia) and the « Jêf Jêl » of Talla Sylla in coalition with Djibo Ka] were at the same time, at their request, supplied with terminals at their headquarters to allow them easy consultation of the electoral file.

The installation of the file on the Internet

The electoral file which included more than 3,000,000 voters by far constituted the largest file in the country and its installation needed 10 days, where the technicians forecast a time of completion of 2 to 3 months.

After its installation, this file was the object of 21,000 requests from internauts on the first day alone. This is an enormous figure for the context of Senegal, and it certainly shows the obvious interest in its content. It also showed the existence of a real need for information at this level.

Thus, resorting to the New Techniques of Information and Communication (NTIC) has allowed us  to close the debate on the reliability of the file, but especially to standardize common access to this file.

These initiatives were also meant as a significant contribution towards reinforcing democracy, by the fact that they gave equal opportunity to any elector, and beyond this elector to any internaut who might so wish, to have access to Senegal’s electoral file, from the moment he has the technical means of doing so (personal computer, cybercafé, consultation terminals, etc.).

This gives these voters a feeling of power (civic responsibility), of mastering important information about an electoral process which concerns them and in which they are major actors, even if they are less visible and audible than other groups of actors structured into political parties and organs of control.

Putting the file on the Internet, which was a new experience at the time, has widely contributed to holding elections which are considered well organised by observers of the electoral process.  This experience has, since then, been renewed for subsequent electoral consultations.  Although certainly beneficial, this recourse nonetheless poses some problems.

LESSONS LEARNT FROM APPLYING THE SOLUTION

After the installation of the file on the Internet, some, occasionally anecdotic, objections and some basic questions have been raised in Senegal.

The respect of individual liberty

In fact, some electors’ reactions have been very varied.

The Senegalese, living in the USA and whose names are on the file, have raised the question of the presence of the mother’s maiden name, which, it seems, is the key that allows access to certain bank accounts in America. They have, thus, exposed the problem of financial security. I agreed to their request, and the name of the mother has been deleted from the voter’s card which appears on Internet for the Senegalese living in the United States.

The Senegalese living in France have, in their turn, stressed the risk that the presence of the address exposed them to. In reality, it concerned those who were in an irregular situation and who were afraid, that the immigration services of their host country would base themselves on this information, available on the net, to have them expelled.  It should be mentioned that they were numerous and very nervous. For the Senegalese in France, the address was deleted.  On this basis, the field carrying that information has been locked to make it inaccessible to internauts.

I thought I had finished with these complaints, when people living in Senegal interpellated me in different ways (sometimes with courtesy but at other times with a certain verbal violence), to ask me to make the name of the mother disapear. The reason being, that in Senegal, according to certain beliefs, it is through the name of the mother that you can efficiently « marabouter » (put the spell on) somebody. The same measure as that applied to the Senegalese abroad in this respect was applied to them.

Without being obliged to agree to these solicitations, because no Senegalese text approaches this, the individual liberty was respected.

One can see that the current configuration of the Senegalese electoral file on the Internet was determined by three factors, all turning around fear:

The fear of loss of dollars in the United States,

The fear of being found in your French hiding place and expelled to Senegal,

The fear of the marabout for the Senegalese at home.

The potential risks

If you refer to the above, almost anecdotic, examples, it is easy to realize the impact that resorting to the New Techniques of Information and Communication (NTIC) may have on the lives of simple citizens who only wish to exercise their civic duty.

However, in the current state of the Senegalese legislation, no texts exist ruling this domain, even if the process of implementing a regulatory authority for telecommunications has already been engaged. Aside from these aspects, three types of risks may result from putting the file on the Internet:

1. Attempts on privacy:

The civil status of electors is accessible to any internaut, when perhaps certain among these former would have preferred to keep all the required confidentiality about it for different reasons [age, filiation (for example for those born to father unknown)].

2. Use of a commercial nature:

The list of electors on the Internet and all the socio-demographic information it includes (age, address, gender, region, etc.) constitutes a manna which could be used for commercial purposes in marketing operations by certain companies. The electors could, thus, receive mail of a commercial nature without having anything to say about it. This would be a source of nuisance for these electors. Furthermore, these operations would be without financial compensation for the country, or the individuals, or organisations.

3. Breaking the principle of egality between candidates or lists of candidates:

The parties which are better equipped on the IT level or who dispose of more expertise in this area could have an advantage over the others, due to optimal recourse to the file on Internet.

Perspectives

As we have been able to note, the use of the New Technologies of Information and Communication (NTIC) in the domain of the electoral file has been globally positive, despite the relative potential risks.

Taking into account its contribution to the reinforcing of democracy in Senegal, it would be desirable to maintain the diffusion of the electoral file on the Internet, as it still is today. If it should give rise to a debate, it would perhaps be suitable to preserve the confidentiality of certain information concerning the privacy of the electors, by, for example, masking the data concerning filiation.

Beyond putting the file on the Internet, it would be pertinent to move towards electronic voting to guarantee more reliability, rapidity, transparency and efficiency for the different phases of the electoral process. Such an operation would, in the long term, be less expensive, considering that each election costs a little over 5 thousand million CFA francs, or 50 million French francs.  Such an option is even more beneficial, as the installations could serve outside the election periods and contribute to the modernisation of the entire administration.

Resorting to the New Techniques of Information and Comunication (NTIC) during the entire electoral process would require as a pre-requisite:

·      Implementing adapted legislation in the matter of personal data and privacy protection.

We have already started computerising the last phase of the electoral process with computer treatment of the election results at the level of the vote counting commissions and of the jurisdiction charged with electoral litigation (constitutional council).  Therefore, the junction should be made between the pre-electoral phase with the lists on the Internet, and the contentious phase whose weight of passion would be defused by the real-time knoweldge of the election results by electronic means.  Electronic democracy, and simply democracy, would be reinforced.

These - Ladies and Gentlemen - are the reflections I wished to share with you on the experience I had as an actor in the electoral process in Senegal, more precisely as the organiser of three elections (parliamentary, senatorial and presidential) in two years, from 1998 to the year 2000.

Thank you for your kind attention, and I remain at your disposal for any possible discussion of the questions approached.