Elections during COVID-19: Can an Election with Only Online and Postal Votes be Held?
Posted on April 28th, 2020
Wasantha Senanayake, USA
With the current uncertain outcome of the COVID-19 pandemic, re-opening of the economy, let alone holding public elections, seem to be at a distant future. However, the current situation, where the country is without a parliament, makes holding an election a dire necessity.
Online campaigning via social media or television can avoid public political meetings. The University of Colombo could create history by being the first to create an online voting system that is foolproof. For those who do not have access to electronic sources, the Grama Sevaka could distribute postal voting cards after checking the ID of each person. All the above would avoid costly human interactions that would lead to disease spread, and a violence-free, fraud-free election.
April 28th, 2020 at 10:19 pm
This is a brilliant idea, if you can do it and make the on-line system “hacker proof”. But our opposition parties will fight tooth & nail against it.