Africa

The paper interrogates the prospect of attaining sustainable democracy in
Africa using biometric technology (BT) for elections. Technology has become
relevant in virtually every aspect of human endeavour, including election
management and democratic development. In Africa, BT has also been
deployed to improve the quality of elections and democracy. Using document
analysis and review of relevant literature, findings indicate that to a large
extent, BT is charting the path for sustainable democracy in Africa. However,
the deployment of BT for African elections still faces serious challenges such
as its high cost, inability to address some forms of electoral fraud, and lack
of technical know-how. The paper concludes that the cultivation of political
will to improve the quality of elections is important in order to address the
current challenges of using BT in African elections and increase the prospect
of attaining sustainable democracy.