Why is tax collection the most effective aspect of e-Government?

I read a great quote from Steven Clift – a strong proponent of e-Democracy and e-Government – yesterday.

He asked, “Isn’t it interesting that the best-designed government websites are those collecting your taxes, while the worst sites are those giving you a say on how your taxes are spent?”

Amazingly, given the internet penetration among its population, he was referring to the United States. It seems the pattern is universal.

I used e-Filing for the first time last year and, while it has its bugs and irritations, it’s certainly efficient and effective. But improving government service delivery by providing more and better services online is something about which I feel strongly. I advocated the DA taking it up as an issue last year, and the result was a discussion document entitled “10 Steps to get Government Online on track.”

I’d really like to see government go beyond the obvious. If you can file your taxes online, why shouldn’t you be able to apply for an ID document or Passport, or renew your driver’s licence, online?

Mobile and Internet tools make it difficult for Mugabe to steal election in Zimbabwe

One of the key differences between this year’s general election in Zimbabwe and the widely-believed-to-be-rigged presidential race in 2005 is the practice – agreed to in the Mbeki-mediated pre-election talks – of starting the count immediately after polls closed and displaying the results of the count to public view outside each polling station as soon as it is completed. Add to this the greater penetration of mobile phones and internet access, and it becomes much more difficult for President Robert Mugabe to cling to power by manipulating the election results.

Thanks to a newsletter from an NGO called Sokwanele, I discovered an Independent Results Centre for the Zimbabwe Elections 2008, which is doing a tabulation of votes parallel to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC – incidently, I got a “Forbidden” error when trying to visit this page).

The site’s parallel tabulation gives Morgan Tsvangirai 50.3% of the presidential vote (based on the votes of 209 out of 210 constituencies), Robert Mugabe 42.9%, and Simba Makoni 6.8%. It gives Tsvangirai’s MDC 99 seats, Zanu-PF 95 seats, and Mutambara’s MDC and Independents 12 seats. Three constituencies have to be contested in by-elections due to candidates having passed away.