327: democracy to return to Angola

This is a truly hopeful story about the Southern African nation of Angola, as it prepares for its first elections in 16 years. As today's linked article from the BBC reports, Angola is still recovering from years of civil war, during which millions of people were displaced and many others died. For this reason, and as there has been no recent census, it's now very hard to know where people are living - an important prerequisite for voter registration in most countries. And voting will be made yet more difficult when polls open on Friday, given the lack of basic infrastructure such as roads and telecommunications in many areas. But Angolans are determined to overcome these challenges. To do so, they are employing a range of new technologies - PDAs, solar-powered fax machines, voting cards complete with fingerprints and holograms... plus many 'old fashioned' human observers, local and international. These measures will help ensure votes are counted efficiently and without risk of fraud. And where ballot boxes cannot be collected by road, the electoral commission has said it will use helicopter or boat. People will be sent text messages to remind them to vote. It's a massive financial commitment, of course - but what price the restoration of democracy?

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