A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering in Information Management, School of Engineering and Technology

Thesis (M. Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2021

With the rapid growth in migration to abroad countries, the demand for making arrangements for citizens living abroad to exercise their voting rights has been increasing in Nepal. There are different methods of conducting external voting, but with the tremendous potential of ICT for better governance, e-voting can be an alternative method for allowing voters to cast their vote along with effective and efficient management of the election. Therefore, the over all objective of this study is to propose an e-voting framework and use it to design an e-voting system for use in external voting. The study was divided into four phases. The first phase of the study focused on investigating the requirements and challenges of conducting external voting in context of Nepal and discussed different methods of external voting namely per sonal voting, postal voting, and e-voting. Expert interviews were conducted with members of ECN, academicians, political party members, and technical consultants. It was discussed that although remote internet voting might be an effective method for external voting, due to inherent security challenges in internet voting and other concerns regarding freedom and se crecy, implementing remote internet voting can be difficult. Experts were of the opinion that internet voting in a controlled environment could be the right choice at an initial phase. For countries considering to introduce e-voting in first place, it is, however, important to under stand several components that have a direct influence on the design and implementation of e-voting. Hence, in the second phase, this study proposes a generic e-voting framework that can be used to organize ideas to design an e-voting system applicable to the country{u2019}s needs. The framework consists of six major components; E-voting model, E-voting requirements, and E-voting system along with the Traditional voting model, Influential factors, Stakehold ers which are considered as external drivers for e-voting. Political consensus and trust of the stakeholders towards the e-voting system were found to be the strong factors affecting the implementation of e-voting. In the third phase, we used the framework to analyze and propose a conceptual design of an e-voting system for overseas Nepalese electors. Expert interviews were conducted to understand the traditional voting process in Nepal which was in line with the model developed. E-voting requirements were also identified. On the basis of the e-voting model, e-voting requirements, and analysis of external drivers, a conceptual design of internet voting in a controlled environment (in diplomatic missions) was proposed. A prototype application was implemented to demonstrate the concept. In the final phase, the application was tried out by users which included normal voters, IT consultants, and aca demicians, and feedback was collected. All of the users were positive towards using such e-voting system. Although few users said that that they do not fully trust the system, they were positive that it should be tried out. Overall, this study can help in guiding concerned parties to understand, analyze and design an effective e-voting system.