The spotlight is on the work of international observer teams, but there are also much wider questions of electoral capacity — problems that extend to the top of the African Union, and thence across the whole continent.

African democracies are in the process of coordinating a generation jump in applied technology.

So far, they have actually done a remarkable job by global standards.

After all, something like electronic voting is still not used in the United Kingdom, where people in raincoats wait patiently while someone with a pencil draws a line through their name on a paper spreadsheet.

The rain-sodden voter drips into the polling booth and makes a choice, casts their vote with a pencil on a sheet of paper, and shuffles outside again, while putting up an ineffectual umbrella.

From New Day. Story by Stephen Chen.

Nothing has changed for 100 years.

It’s Africa that has led the way — and the West isn’t the place to look for immediate answers for all the problems of running a 21st century election.

One such problem is the use of multiple forms of electronic voting.

Voter identification by electronic means is given priority in Nigeria, but even there, it’s not implemented consistently: there are different systems provided by different companies, all submitting tenders on a competitive basis.

Read more at New Day.