Thailand is preparing to introduce blockchain technology in their voting system. The Bangkok post has confirmed this news of NECTEC, Bangkok. NECTEC works under the Department of technology & science, and are responsible for the development of IT, Electronics and telecommunications.
According to the cybersecurity head NECTEC, the blockchain technology that they have developed can be used for the elections in national, provincial and even for the business votes. The ambition of developing this technology is to reduce the fraud and conduct a clean election procedure. Maintaining data integrity is also an objective behind the development of the technology.
The future network technology, 5G has a big part to play in implementing this technology. NECTEC is also optimistic about the adoption of this technology as the technologically educated population is growing in the country.
With this technology, the voters will be able to participate in the election through their email and verify themselves through mobile cameras. The cybersecurity head of the department expressed his interest in establishing a controller, that will be capable of handling and storing the verification of the voters and the candidates.
This procedure will definitely make the election procedure faster and inexpensive. But for the system to come into action, all the voters of the country need to have active internet connections. The organization is planning to start the procedure in a closed environment as of now. They have planned to start the voting procedure to take off with the Thai embassies situated all over the world so that the non-resident Thai nationals start voting conveniently.
This strategy can also be practiced for a student election in the Universities and colleges.
Many other countries are also looking forward to adopting this technology for faster and cheaper elections. In November 2018, South Korea had also expressed its interest to test blockchain technology to improve the trustworthiness and security of the online voting procedure.
Back in August 2018, the Japanese government has already tested the efficiency of this technology for the municipal election of Tsukuba.
Using blockchain technology for the elections may have their pros and cons. But many countries including Switzerland and USA are optimistic about it. According to the experts, this technology will help in conducting transparent elections at a cheaper cost. Side by side it will modernize the process of counting and will also guarantee that all the votes are calculated.