Вы находитесь на странице: 1из 11

DAR ES SALAAM INSTITUTE OF

TECHNOLOGY (DIT)

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER STUDIES


ORDINARY DIPLOMA OF COMPUTER ENGNEERING
NTA LEVEL 5
RESEARCH PROPOSAL: NEGATIVE IMPACTS OF MANUAL VOTING
SYSTEM ON STUDENTS’ GENERAL ELECTIONS:
CASE STUDY: DAR ES SALAAM INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY.
GST 05207: RESEARCH METHODS FOR TECHNICIAN.
COURSE: OD17 COE.
GROUP MEMBERS
S/N NAME REG NO
1.0 DAVID SEKILE(CR) 170210223252
2.0 OTHUMANI I. IBRAHIM 170210224078
3.0 MOHAMED SHAFII 170210225737
4.0 NEEMA BENSON 170210213071
5.0 RUBEN MBIHA 170210224813

SUBMITTED TO: MR. MSUYA.

SIGNATURE……………….. DATE…………………..

1
NEGATIVE IMPACTS OF MANUAL VOTING SYSTEM ON STUDENTS’
GENERAL ELECTIONS: AT
DAR ES SALAAM INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY.
TABLE OF CONTENTS …………………………………………….2
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION……………………………………..3
1.1 Background study……………………………………….….3
1.2 Problem Statement……………………………………….…3
1.2.1 Problem Definition………………………………...3
1.3 Objectives of the study………………………………….…..3
1.3.1 Main Objectives………………………………........3
1.3.2 Specific Objectives……………………………........3
1.4 Scope………………………………………………………...4
1.5 Significance of the study………………………………….....4
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW…………………………….…5
2.1 Introduction………………………………………………….5
2.2 Electoral Fraud………………………………………………5
2.3 Low Voter Turnout……………………………………….….5
2.4 Research gap…………………………………………………6
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY………………………..7
3.1 Research Design………………………………………………7
3.2 Research Site………………………………………………….7
3.3 Population……………………………………………………..8
3.4 Sampling………………………………………………………8
3.5 Research Instruments………………………………………….8
3.5.1 Questionnaires………………………………………...8
3.5.2 Interviews…………………………………………….8
3.5.3 Observation…………………………………………..9
CHAPTER 4: REFERENCES AND APPENDICES......…………….…..10
4.1 References………………………………………………….….10
4.2 Appendix A…………………………………………….……...11
4.3 Appendix B…………………………………………………....11

2
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND:

Every academic year in Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology election is one of


the most fundamental critical functions to the student community. The election of
the student’s leaders is held at April of each academic year in a bid bring fresh in
the running of the student organization.
The methods of campaign, election and post-election processes have been all same
since the inception of the student organization. These methods are in every right
acceptable but fall short in this age information and technology, in that they are
slow, entertain fraud to some degree and not so friendly to the environment.
The voting system used in these elections is the ballot box voting system which
was introduced in the year 1872 in by the British through the recently enacted
ballot Act 1872. It was introduced for the purpose of making the election more
private as it was discovered that the existing open voting denied people the
freedom to vote for whoever they wanted without worrying about their security
and society segregation (Davies, G., et al., 2015).

1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT:


1.2.1 PROBLEM DEFINITION
As the statistics shows that the percentage of polling on the day of elections is not
satisfactory as majority of student are not coming to vote and think it is just as a
waste of time. The manual voting system takes long time as there is a lot of paper
work and a lot human efforts are required in counting of the votes.

1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:


1.3.1 MAIN OBJECTIVES
i) To determine how manual voting system affect negatively the election system
in DIT
3
1.3.2 SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES
ii) To analyze the impact of long voting queues on the election attendance
iii) To determine the effect of manual vote counting on election results
iv) To determine the effect of using voting paper on candidate selection
v) Determine the effect of manual vote counting on people’s belief in the election
results

1.4 SCOPE:
The study is conducted at the Dar es salaam Institute of Technology main campus at
Upanga, Dar es Salaam. The study is done only on the voting part of the election all
other activities involved or related to election are not considered. On top of that the
research is focused on studying the manual voting process of student’s general
election and no other elections which take place at the Institute like committee
election.

1.5 SIGNIFICANCE:
The study is intended to have the following importance to the DIT students’
community:
i) The study exposes or reveals clearly the negative impacts of manual voting
system at the campus.
ii) Research findings can be a major convincing factor for Dar es Salaam of
Technology Students Organization (DITSO) to switch to better voting
systems like online voting system so as to cope with the environment and its
requirements.

4
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 INTRODUCTION:
There has been a lot of researches are going on to find new and better ways of voting
using technology in this digital age. There are many ways in which the integrity of
elections can be affected A lot of researchers agree that manual voting system has
more disadvantages than advantages and that is why there are so many researches
on finding better voting procedures, processes and protocols.

2.2 ELECTORAL FRAUD:


Studies show that there are numerous ways on which the election results can be
manipulated. There are even more ways to manipulate the election results in the
manual voting system.
In manual voting system there is a large possibility for an individual to vote multiple
times since the use of ballot paper can is hard to control (Nwangwu, et al. 2018).
Also there is illegal voting where the voter can vote for non-existent candidate
(NASEM, 2018).
Also there is ballot box snatching or stuffing, the ballot boxes can be stolen or
snatched away from the voting centers. Ballot box snatching was witnessed in the
2015 Nigeria general election where some of the voters unexpectedly decided to run
away with the ballot boxes which were used for the voting process.

2.3 LOW VOTER TURNOUT:


In elections low voter turnout is not a new or uncommon phenomenon from small
elections to general national elections. They are numerous reasons for this among
them being loss of faith in politicians and their unfulfilled promises and a strong
belief among voters that one’s vote doesn’t really make a difference (Kersting,
2009).

5
2.4 RESEARCH GAP:
Although many researches and studies have been conducted, almost all of them are
conducted in foreign places and locations: Europe, India, Americas and some few
African countries (Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa). There are no locally
conducted researches in Tanzania to provide insights and detailed analysis of the
problem on the local level.
Also another notable gap is that most of the researches have focused on many
variables of the manual voting affect the election but there are not enough researches
which have studied in detail the variable of slow and time consuming voting process,
that is, how long waiting lines caused by the manual voting system are a big source
of disappointment for voters as a lot of time is wasted just to make it to the ballot
box.
For these problems caused by manual voting system, the suggestion is to adopt e-
voting as a tool for curbing electoral fraud in the elections (Nwangwu, et al.
2018).Since free and fair elections are a cornerstone of democracy and a fundamental
human right of all the people (Debnath, et al. 2017) it is only fair that this manual
system which has already been proven to have a lot of shortcomings be thought of
and improved so that the more people could participate in voting.

6
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.

3.1 RESEARCH DESIGN:


According to the conditions and nature of the research site a qualitative research will
be conducted. Qualitative research approach is more favored over quantitative
research since the samples used are small samples. Also qualitative research is used
because the study aims at a complete detailed description of the cause and effect
relationships of variables of the research and not numerical analysis and
classifications of findings.
In addition the research data is subjective, that is, member responses are based on
the individual interpretations of events. The outcomes of the study are not
measurable and quantifiable, a fact which further cements the use of qualitative
research instead of quantitative.
The study is designed to begin with specific and keen observation of the election
processes particularly the voting part of the election. Generalized theories are
produced from the observations made and then further tested by questioning and
interviewing qualified sample members to determine their validity and make
adjustments if any.

3.2 RESEARCH SITE:


The research is conducted at DIT Dar es Salaam main campus because the place can
be easily accessible. The second reason is that they use the manual system in their
elections and the lastly the data from the samples can be readily obtained.

3.3 POPULATION:
The population of the research are students of the DIT main campus. The students
are the ones that are experienced enough with DIT elections, that is, third and second
year students.

7
3.4 SAMPLING TECHNIQUE
The research uses purposive sampling type of sampling which belongs to non-
probability sampling category where sample members are selected on basis of
knowledge, experience and expertise regarding students’ elections at DIT main
campus. Random sampling is also used.
The following are the chosen samples of the research:
i) President of the Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology Students’
Organization (DITSO).
ii) The members of the Students Election Committee
iii) 25 second year students and 25 third year students who voted on two or
more general students’ elections.
iv) 25 second year and 25 third year students who never vote.

3.5 RESEARCH INSTRUMENTS


On this study, research data is collected through three methods: questionnaires,
interviews and observation. The methods are enough to collect the data and evidence
needed in this this research. The methods are simple enough and practical enough so
they make the best data collection tools in this research.

3.5.1 Questionnaires
In this case, the users of the system are the students i.e. voters, the candidates and
the DITSO committee body are the target of this questionnaires. Questionnaires are
used on questions which require short answers and they are constructed in such a
way that the answers are either yes or no. Some of the major questions that will be
contained in the questionnaires are problems associated with the current voting
system and their proposals of a better system if any.

8
3.5.2 Interviews
This involve face to face conversation so as to get direct primary data from the
research participants. Interviews are used to collect data from participants in a freer
manner and give the participants more room for expression. This data collection
technique will be used on open ended questions in which students’ views, thoughts
and opinions are required.

3.5.3 Observation
Data is also collected from observing the existing election processes and students’
behavior.
The following are things to be observed:
i. Students attendance
ii. Duration of voting
iii. Process of vote counting
iv. Voter satisfaction on election results

9
CHAPTER 4: REFERENCES AND APPENDICES
REFERENCES
1. Davies, G. & Zeliner, J.E. (2015). America at the Ballot Box: Elections and
Political History. University of Pennsylvania Press
2. Debnath, Kapoor S. & Mudit. (2017).The Impact of Electronic Voting
Machines on Electoral Frauds, Democracy and Development. India.
3. Kersting, N. (2009). African Spectrum. South Africa: German Institute of
Global Area Studies (GIGA).
4. Nwangwu C., Otu A.O. & Onah V.C. (2018). Elixir of Electoral Fraud: the
Impact of Digital Technology on the 2015 General Elections in Nigeria.
Nigeria: Taylor and Francis Group.
5. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. (2018).
Securing the vote: Protecting American Democracy. The National
Academies Press

10
APPENDIX A:
Questionnaires for students
i) Have you ever voted? Yes/No
ii) Is the amount of time for voting appropriate? Yes/No
iii) Have you ever left at the middle of the voting process because you
thought it was taking too long? Yes/No
iv) Have you ever voted multiple times for a single candidate? Yes/No
v) Is vote counting done fairly without manipulations? Yes/No
Questionnaires for the President of DITSO
i. How much time does it take to prepare for an election
ii. How many cases of vote manipulation do you receive per election

APPENDIX B:
Interview questions for students:
i) Why do you vote?
ii) Why don’t you ever vote?
iii) What do you think of existing voting system?
iv) What should be done to improve the existing system?
Interview questions for the President of DITSO:
i. How hard is it to control the voting process?
ii. How are the ballot votes secured?

11

Вам также может понравиться