Saad Ullah
Thailand’s National Electronics and Computer Technology Center (NECTEC) has completed development of blockchain based election voting system. This was reportedby the Bangkok Post, a leading daily news outlet in the country.
Reduce Election Fraud
The NECTEC, a division under the Ministry of Science and Technology, announced the development and is looking for small scale testing, such as universities and smaller communities like provinces before it can move to the national level.
Head of cyber security testing laboratory at the Center, Chalee Vorakulpipat, discussed about the decentralized technology’s application, “NECTEC developed blockchain technology for e-voting that can be applied to national, provincial or community elections, as well as business votes such as the board of directors. The goal is to reduce fraud and maintain data integrity.”
NECTEC does admit that at current level of the country’s development, mobile and internet penetration, it is not possible to run the blockchain voting system at the national level, since, “every voter needs to have an affordable mobile internet connection and identity verification.”
Opening to Blockchain
The progress, however, is laudable. After the 2007 coup in the country, the government has been in the spotlight for massive human rights violation. The use of blockchain in voting would certainly guarantee fair elections in the South Asian country.
In November last year, the main opposition, Democrat Party, held its primary elections using blockchain technology, becoming the first political party in the world to select its leaders through direct voting.
Russia’s Saratov Regionis also among countries and regions that are using blockchain for elections and voting at governmental level Now, Thailand’s government steps up with the centre backed blockchain voting.
Saad Ullah
