The (un)making of electoral transparency through technology

The 2017 Kenyan presidential election controversy

Bibliographic Data

ID11924617
AuthorsCecilia Passanti (0000-0003-2297-727X, University Paris Cité, Paris, France, corresponding author), Marie-Emmanuelle Pommerolle (0000-0001-6006-9761, University of Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne, Paris, France)
Year2022
Volume52
Issue6
Pages928-953
Publication date2022-09-26
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial Studies of Science (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0306-3127 • E-ISSN: 1460-3659
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/03063127221124007
PMID36154350
OpenAlexW4297237074
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited41

Marked by the killing of a senior ICT professional working for the Electoral Commission and the invalidation of the presidential election by the Supreme Court, the 2017 Kenyan elections make for a good case through which to study how digital technologies shape contemporary electoral practice. This article examines the practice of electoral transparency through technology and argues that it can be conceived as a socio-technical device based both on distancing people from knowledge of the electoral infrastructure and on staging a simplified discourse on public access to the electoral infrastructure. Drawing on interviews with key actors in election technology implementation and ethnographic observations of public events around it, the article argues that digital technology has had three sets of implications for elections. First, it has shaped the electoral infrastructure and the nature of the final result (now a paper and digital hybrid). Second, it has shaped the distribution of knowledge among electoral professionals, giving a central role to ICT actors, objects, and knowledge in the definition of electoral transparency. Third, the centrality of ICTs in elections and the order of knowledge they bring are highly controversial and criticized by other electoral actors who demand for material proof for understanding the inner workings of elections

Distancing · General election · Information and Communications Technology · Kenya · Political science · Politics · Presidential election · Public relations · Sociology · Transparency (behavior · Hate Speech and Cyberbullying Detection · Internet Traffic Analysis and Secure E-voting · Law · Public Administration · Social Media and Politics

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