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ABSTRACT
In a large number of countries in Africa, biometric identification technologies have become a key element of voter registration procedures. Based on an in-depth study of biometric voter registration in Chad, a country marked by a long history of political violence, the article explains how the technology has been construed as a “solution” to address a situation labelled as a political crisis. To make sense of the unlikely introduction of biometrics in Chad, two main elements are considered: the socially constituted belief in the potential of biometrics and – paradoxically – the unfulfilled promises and fallibility of that same technology. Combining the literature on biometrics, election technologies, and liberal democracy promotion, the analysis concludes that biometric voter registration is a disciplining technology. In addition to capturing the personal data of individuals, it fosters the framing of democracy in narrow technological and procedural terms.
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to the participants of the research project “The social life of ID papers in Africa” led by Séverine Awenengo Daleberto and Richard Banégas and as well as to those of the research collective “Digitization and society in Asia and Africa” led by Marine Al Dahdah and Mathieu Quet. I also would like to thank the anonymous reviewers of Democratization for helpful comments and directions.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Brazil adopted electronic voting in 2000. India, the pioneer of biometric identification with the Aadhaar database, has deployed electronic voting machines since 2004.
2 Yard, Civil and voter Registries; Evrensel, Voter Registration in Africa; Wang, Voter Identification Requirements.
3 The first country in Africa that used fingerprint technology to generate the voter roll was Lesotho, for its 2002 elections. The Democratic Republic of Congo (2006), Nigeria, Senegal, Togo (2007), Angola, Mozambique, Rwanda (2008) followed. Piccolino, “Infrastructural State Capacity for Democratization,” 498-519.
4 International IDEA, ICTS in elections database.
5 Morozov, To Save Everything.
6 Scott, Seeing Like a State.
7 On the origins and the spread of biometrics, see Breckenridge, Biometric State.
8 Cheeseman, Lynch and Willis, “The Unintended Consequences of Election Technology,” 1397-1418.
9 This article is based on fieldwork conducted in Chad before (December 2014), during (April-May 2016) and after (June 2017) the election. I interviewed domestic and international actors: politicians, activists, members of the election management body, technical electoral advisers, domestic and international election observers and foreign diplomats, as well as experts from the industry.
10 Debos, Living by the Gun in Chad.
11 Donovan, “Bureaucratic Technopolitics in Post-Apartheid Welfare,” 815-833.
12 Frowd, “Promises and Pitfalls of Biometric Security,” 343–359.
13 Epstein, “Crossing the Biometric Borders,” 153.
14 Maguire, Rao, and Zurawski eds. Bodies as Evidence, 1.
15 Magnet, When Biometrics Fails, 152-153.
16 I elaborate on this dimension in “Legible Bodies and Lives.”
17 Van der Ploeg, “Biometrics and the Body as Information,” 57-73.
18 Abrahamsen, Disciplining Democracy; Abrahamsen, “African Democracy – Still Disciplined,” 241-246.
19 Carapico, Political Aid and Arab Activism; Guilhot, The Democracy Makers; Peiffer and Englebert, “Extraversion, Vulnerability and Political Liberalization,” 355–78; Kurki, Democratic Futures.
20 Hagmann and Reyntjens, Aid and Authoritarianism in Africa.
21 Jacobsen, “Biometric Voter Registration,” 14.
22 Bush, The Taming of Democracy Assistance.
23 Piccolino, “Infrastructural State Capacity for Democratization,” 498-519.
24 Gelb and Diofasi, “Biometric Elections in Poor Countries.” For an assessment of the rising cost of elections in Africa, see Van der Straaten, “Of Democracy, and Elections”
25 Cheeseman, Lynch and Willis, “The Unintended Consequences of Election Technology,” 1397-1418.
26 Golden, Kramon and Ofosu, “Electoral Fraud and Biometric Identification Failure.”
27 Debrah, Effah and Owusu-Mensah, “Does a Biometric System Guarantee an Outcome?”
28 Nyabola, Digital Democracy, Analog Politics; Passanti and Pommerolle, “The Politics of Knowledge, Trust and Truth.”
29 Andreas, “A Tale of Two Borders,” 1-23.
30 Privacy International, “Biometrics: Friend or Foe of Privacy?”
31 Markó, “We Are Not a Failed State,” 113-132.
32 Jacobsen, “Experimentation in Humanitarian Locations,” 144-164.
33 Jacobsen, “Biometric Voter Registration,” 1-22.
34 Abdelnour and Saeed, “Technologizing Humanitarian Space,” 145-163.
35 The rebel factions were defeated in 2009. They were supported by Sudan. In January 2010, the signing of the agreement by Chad and Sudan put an end to the proxy war between the two countries. On the war in Chad, see Debos, Living by the Gun in Chad; Marchal, “An Emerging Military Power.”
36 ICG, Chad: A New Conflict Resolution Framework, 10.
37 Themnér, Warlord Democrats in Africa.
38 On civil society organizations in Chad, see de Bruijn, “The Impossibility of Civil Organizations.”
39 Interview, N’Djamena, June 2017.
40 Interview, N’Djamena, April 2016.
41 Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the events of 28 January to 8 February 2008.
42 This expression has been used by several informants who work in the field of democracy assistance.
43 Interview with the consultant, Paris, February 2019.
44 CENI, Rapport final sur le processus électoral 2013-2016.
45 Interview with Idriss Déby on Radio France Internationale: RFI, “Au Tchad, le président Déby annonce le report des législatives ‘sine die’”.
46 European Union, Tchad: rapport final sur les élections législatives.
47 Gelb and Diofasi, “Biometric Elections in Poor Countries.”
48 Orji, “The 2015 Nigerian General Elections,” 73–85.
49 UNDP, Évaluation finale du projet d’appui au cycle électoral au Tchad. The financial contribution of Japan is mentioned in the UNDP report. Strangely, there is no mention of it in the report published by the election commission.
50 CENI, Guide méthodologique de sensibilisation électorale, 32.
51 Manatouma, Identifier les individus au Tchad.
52 Makulilo, “Rebooting Democracy?,” 198–212.
53 Lyon, Identifying Citizens, 42.
54 Ahmat Ali Hissein, Bureau Permanent des Elections, “Le recensement électoral biométrique de la population.”
55 Coordination des Partis Politiques pour la Défense de la Constitution (CPDC), Communiqué de presse.
56 Interviews with French and European diplomats in Chad as well as experts of the UNDP, N’Djamena, May and June 2016.
57 Interview with Mahamat Ahmat Alhabo on Radio France Internationale : RFI, “On ne peut pas renvoyer aux calendes grecques les législatives.”
58 Debos, “La biométrie électorale au Tchad,” 101-120; Donovan, “Bureaucratic Technopolitics in Post-Apartheid Welfare,” 815-833.
59 Interview, N’Djamena, May 2016.
60 CENI, Rapport final sur le processus électoral 2013-2016.
61 Awenengo Dalberto and Banégas, eds., Identification and Citizenship in Africa.
62 LTDH, Rapport sur la situation des droits de l’Homme.
63 African Union, “Electoral Observation Mission for the Presidential Election in Chad Republic.”
64 Field notes taken by the author.
65 Barma, “Tchad : l’addition salée.”
66 Tubiana and Debos, Déby’s Chad.
67 Hersey, “Digital ID in Africa this Week.”
68 Jacobsen, “Biometric Voter Registration,” 3.
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Marielle Debos
Marielle Debos is Associate Professor in Political Science at the University Paris Nanterre, Institute for Social Sciences of Politics, and a member of the Institut Universitaire de France (IUF). Her research interests include armed conflicts and violence, biometrics and election technologies in Africa. She is the author of Living by the Gun in Chad: Combatants, Impunity, and State Formation (Zed Books 2016). Her most recent research (supported by the Institut Universitaire de France) explores the historical and social construction of the biometric voting market in Africa.