La troisième table-ronde du Forum de la démocratie s’est tenue le 27 juin 2023 au siège
d’Elections Cameroon sur le thème : «Le digital et les élections».
On June 27, 2023, the United Nations Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Central Africa (UNCHRD-CA) organized the third Democracy Forum round table at the ELECAM (Elections Cameroon) headquarters.
This round table, organized as part of the series of activities marking the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), followed on from the one held on April 5 at the Center's headquarters.
The event, covered by numerous journalists, was officially launched by ELECAM's President of the Electoral Council, Enow Abrams Egbe, who praised the collaboration between his institution and the UNCHRD-CA. The opening speech was presented by Charlie Martial Ngounou, an expert in digital issues and information systems, and President of the NGO Afroleadership. He spoke on "Digital and elections: realities, constraints and opportunities".
New digital challenges
The development of new information and communication technologies (NICTs), particularly digital technology, has contributed to the emergence of fundamental freedoms and democracy. Notwithstanding the low level of Internet coverage in Africa, digital technology remains a major instrument for the exercise of freedoms and a vast field of economic, social and political opportunities. In the case of elections, digital has become a privileged space for political players to disseminate their political programs and develop innovative political communication strategies on various digital platforms. In addition to being a fertile ground of opportunities, including for young people, digital technology is also a place where thrive misinformation, hate speech and incitement to violence.
From an electoral point of view, digital solutions can offer advantages in terms of flexibility (online registration, remote voting), independence and inclusion (for example, e-voting can offer people with special needs the opportunity to participate in elections).
Recently, there have been countless concerns about the impact of artificial intelligence tools on human rights, democracy, ethics and governance. In March 2023, in an open letter, artificial intelligence experts, researchers and funders joined in a call for an immediate pause of at least six (06) months in the creation of "giant" artificial intelligence, so that the potential and dangers of systems such as GPT-4 Chat can be properly studied.
These issues take on a particularly dimension in relation to the manipulation of personal data and its security, the sincerity of the vote and other concerns linked to the electoral process mentioned by participants at the round table.
