Security Challenges around the Student Representative Council’s e-Voting System at Public-Funded University in the Western Cape

This study examines the security challenges around the Student Representative Council (SRC)’s electronic voting systems at a public-funded university in the Western Cape province. Given the emergence of the global Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic and South Africa’s national energy crisis, universities have reconfigured their business models including the SRC voting system. The objective of this paper was to conduct a credible and preserve the SRC voting process. In addition, the study examined the security challenges brought about by the electronic voting system with the aim of suggesting appropriate interventions that could deter would be perpetrators. A qualitative research methodology was used to gather data from members of the SRC, students and student administration. Data were collected through a semi-structured interview, in a face-to-face environment. The study established user mistakes, technical errors and unacceptable user behaviour as the root causes of security vulnerabilities in the e-Voting system. Furthermore, the paper revealed that students voted for the SRC using their student numbers, thus, exposing the identities of voters. The recommendations were to generate numbers, allocate them to registered voters, and use them for voting. Election Officers were required to attend Information Security awareness training programmes in order to exercise due handling of people’s information. The use of biometrics authentication was suggested to improve the security of information.