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The purpose of this paper is to assess the readiness of Ugandans to accept electronic voting under the restrictive conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A semi-structured questionnaire, built on a five-point-Likert scale with responses ranging from 1 – strongly disagree to 5 – strongly agree was used to get quantifiable data from four main electoral stakeholders i.e. the policymakers, urban and semi-urban youth, rural voters and government officials. These stakeholders were purposively and conveniently selected because of the influential roles they play in promoting electoral democracy in Uganda. Using a cross-sectional survey design, the authors adopted correlational and quantitative research designs to collect and analyse data. Data was collected from a maximum sample size of 384 as recommended by Krejcie and Morgan (1970) from which 252 useful responses (65.6% response rate) were obtained. Using a statistical package for social scientists version 21.0, the authors performed a Pearson correlation coefficient to determine the relationships between study variables and linear regression analysis to predict the readiness of the stakeholders to accept e-voting more especially under the constraints caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

There was a positive significant relationship between perceived usefulness (PU) and attitude towards adoption, perceived ease of use and attitude towards adoption, attitude and readiness and finally trust propensity and readiness. The regression results show that 65% of the variations in readiness to adopt e-voting can be explained by perceived ease of use, PU, trust propensity and attitude towards adoption. Attitude towards adopting e-voting accounts for the highest variations in the model followed by trust propensity and finally PU. However, perceived ease of use was found to be insignificant.

The study was limited to only PU, perceived ease of use, trust propensity, attitudes towards using/adoption and readiness to accept e-voting amidst the COVID-19 strict conditions. In Africa, electoral democracy can be influenced by a number of factors such as finances, education levels, sectarianism, voter rigging, perceived risk, political and economic environment. These were not taken into consideration yet they would affect the stakeholders’ attitudes and perceptions which would directly or indirectly affect the adoption of electronic voting.

Given the low levels of technology infrastructure in the country, there is a general low uptake of technology-oriented systems. The internet reach is low and quality is poor whilst the radio and televisions network is limited to a few urban settings, poor quality technology systems such as the recently acquired voter biometric systems and the constant government actions to switch off the internet and social media whenever there are contentious political issues. These inadequacies together with the restrictive COVID-19 conditions have compromised the participation of stakeholders which dents the stakeholders’ readiness to accept e-voting which consequently compromises electoral democracy in the country. Therefore, government, electoral observers, the international community and civil society organizations need to accelerate the technology infrastructure development in the country, training and development of technical skills and competences, as well as mass mobilization on the use of technology-oriented platforms aimed at promoting electoral democracy. The country should come up with ICT policies and regulations that encourage the use of ICT in areas that promote democracy. These may include; the use of an easy e-voting system such as emails and voting via the post office. Also, Lawmakers, civil society organizations and the international community should make it punitive for anyone who disenfranchises people through internet disconnection, denial of access to broadcast, print and online media. These interventions will restore peoples’ attitudes and perceptions towards electronic voting, consequently increasing their levels of participation in the electioneering process.

The Ministry of Health, the Uganda Police Force and other security agencies have come out strongly to enforce the COVID-19 standard operating procedures which among others include the banning of political gatherings, processions and meetings of any kind. As a remedy, the Electoral Commission is encouraging political parties, electoral candidates, voters and other stakeholders to use technology-oriented systems such as mobile phones, broadcast and print media, the internet and others to reach out to the electorate. With the government in full control of all these electronic, print and broadcast media, having previously switched them off during the 2011 and 2016 polls consequently disenfranchising many people from their democratic rights, it remains unknown the extent to which the electorate is ready to accept and appreciate scientific voting more so during this time when restrictions against COVID-19 are not making it any better for the voters and other key participants to carry out their political and civil activities.

The purpose of this study is threefold: first, to determine whether civic education has a positive impact on voting intentions among the electorate; second, to establish whether attitudes towards voting behaviour (ATVB) mediate the relationship between civic education and voting intentions; and third, to determine whether educational level moderates the relationship between civic education and voting intentions.

This study adopted a survey research design and a quantitative approach. Data were collected from a sample of 1,450 registered voters from the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria. A regression-based approach was adopted to test the study hypotheses using Hayes-PROCESS Macro 3.5.

The results indicate that civic education is positively associated with voting intentions. Further analysis reveals that ATVB significantly mediates the association between civic education and voting intentions. Additionally, educational level positively moderates the relationship between civic education and voting intentions.

The findings offer implications for governments and democratic institutions.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to provide empirical evidence of the mediating effect of ATVB and the moderating effect of educational level on the relationship between civic education and voting intentions. This study provides useful insights into the factors that influence voting intentions.

This paper aims to investigate the impact of political advertising on voter attitude and the processes of decision-making in the specific context of the inaugural democratic experience of post-revolutionary Tunisia.

The study was conducted in Tunisia, where the target respondents included Tunisian’s eligible to vote during the presidential campaign of October 2014. The study uses questionnaires for data collection using a convenience sampling technique.

The major findings of the study are that the persuasion power of advertising has a direct impact on voter involvement, trust and attitude towards voting. Specifically, involvement significantly influences a voter’s attitude. The hypothesis on the impact of trust on attitude, and the hypothesis related to the mediating role of trust and involvement were rejected.

The study recommends specialists in political advertising and politicians themselves give consideration to the trust and involvement considerations of the Tunisian voter, to enhance and optimize the quality and credibility of political advertising in the future.

The research offers some interesting findings for professionals in political advertising, for companies operating in political research, or advertising agencies. In this context, advertising agencies need to give prescient consideration to the trust of the voter by developing a credible and believable discourse.

In the context of a nascent democracy, it is very important to educate people so they become familiarized with the practices of democracy, and to give them the ability to make the right choice. The study recommends specialists in political advertising and also politicians give consideration to the trust and involvement considerations of the Tunisian voter, to enhance and optimize the quality and credibility of political advertising.

This research paper related to political advertising can be used to formulate appropriate political advertising strategies and to ameliorate and optimize the advertising discourse in the context of a nascent democracy.

The manner in which people, businesses and governments perform is changing because of the spread of technology. Digitalization of governments can be considered a necessity as we are now entering the era of the Internet-of-Things. The advantages and disadvantages of electronic governments have been examined in several research studies. This study aims to examine the attitudes of decision-makers towards e-government. The research aims are as follows: to determine the problems related with e-government usage, to establish the factors which decrease the usage of e-government services and to propose recommendations for the effective application of e-government practices.

Qualitative research has been used for the study. Participants were chosen by the snowball sampling method, and face-to-face in-depth interviews were conducted with all decision-makers. In-depth interviews are more efficient and enable the acquisition of better qualitative information, in-depth knowledge and statistics, as the distance between the interviewer and interviewee is reduced (Stokes and Bergin, 2006). Questions asked can be categorized under two sections, where the questions in the first section are related to the decision-maker’s management style/managerial proposition, and in the second section, technological questions are asked in terms of the preferred communication method and the decision-makers’ attitudes towards e-government practices.

Decision-makers perceive electronic government to be important, while the level of importance is observed to be different among the decision-makers. Chronic problems exist in many countries, such as nepotism, where the decision-makers have conflicting arguments about e-government and the resulting effect on nepotism. Furthermore, the study also indicates that decision-makers are aware of the importance of mobile government, although they acknowledge that more time is required, as their country is still developing. Electronic voting is also perceived to be important, although the decision-makers believe that security and privacy issues need to be solved before related projects can be initiated.

This research can be a benchmark study for the decision-makers of small island developing states by means of e-government. The impediments preventing the effective application of e-government practices are also discussed in the study. This study will be useful to highlight the triggers and obstacles for e-government development in the context of a developing country. Internet penetration has increased significantly since the 2000s, and therefore, decision-makers need to consider the shift in citizens’ behaviour, such as the high usage of smartphones and the emergence of the Internet-of-Things (Kaya and Bicen, 2016; Kumar et al., 2017).

This research has been conducted with the aim of determining if celebrity endorsers in political party advertising have a significant impact on UK voter intentions. The use of celebrity endorsements is commonplace in the USA, but little is known about its effects in the UK. This research also aims to incorporate the use of celebrity endorsements in political party advertising with the political salience construct. Political salience represents how prominent politics and political issues are in the minds of the eligible voter.

A 2 (endorser: celebrity; non‐celebrity)×2 (political salience: high; low) between‐subjects factorial design experiment was used. The results show that celebrity endorsements do play a significant role in attitudes towards the political advert, attitudes towards the endorser and voter intention. However, this effect is significantly moderated by political salience.

The results show that low political salience respondents were significantly more likely to vote for the political party when a celebrity endorser is used. However, the inverse effect is found for high political salience respondents.

The results offer significant insights into the effect that celebrity endorsers could have in future elections and the importance that political salience plays in the effectiveness of celebrity endorsement. If political parties are to target those citizens that do not actively engage with politics then the use of celebrity endorsements would make a significant impact, given the results of this research.

This research would be of particular interest to political party campaigners as well as academics studying the effects of advertising and identity salience.

In seeking to extend rational choice theory from “market” to “political” behaviour, economists have encountered a paradox: namely, that the act of voting itself appears to be inconsistent with the assumption of rationality. This is true not only when self‐interest is assumed, but also when altruistic behaviour (at least in its non‐Kantian form) is allowed for. This article surveys the theoretical and empirical literature on the determinants of the decision to participate in voting, and concludes that this decision is responsive to changes in the expected benefits and costs of voting; even though the expected costs of voting must normally outweigh the expected benefits. Interpretations of this behaviour include the possibility that voters act rationally, but are misinformed about the likely effectiveness of their votes; alternatively, the electorate may include more Kantians than economists have generally been willing to admit.

In an effort to increase turnout at elections the UK government has been piloting electronic voting. At the 2002 local elections five councils tested remote Internet voting for the first time. Swindon Borough Council conducted the largest pilot, offering remote Internet voting to all voters. Almost 15,000 voters were surveyed as to their motivation for choosing their voting method. Turnout did increase by 3.5 per cent but it is impossible to state conclusively that this was due to the availability of the Internet voting option, since most Internet voters were already regular voters. Future pilots should allow a more conclusive assessment of the impact on turnout of remote Internet voting.

This systematic literature review analyses the determinants and consequences of executive compensation-related shareholder activism and say-on-pay (SOP) votes. The review covers 71 empirical articles published between January 1995 and September 2017. The studies are reviewed within an empirical research framework that separates the reasons for shareholder activism and SOP voting dissent as input factor on the one hand and the consequences of shareholder pressure as output factor on the other. This procedure identifies the five most important groups of factors in the literature: the level and structure of executive compensation, firm characteristics, corporate governance mechanisms, shareholder structure and stakeholders. Of these, executive compensation and firm characteristics are the most frequently examined. Further examination reveals that the key assumptions of neoclassical principal agent theory for both managers and shareholders are not always consistent with recent empirical evidence. First, behavioral aspects (such as the perception of fairness) influence compensation activism and SOP votes. Second, non-financial interests significantly moderate shareholder activism. Insofar, we recommend integrating behavioral and non-financial aspects into the existing research. The implications are analyzed, and new directions for further research are discussed by proposing 19 different research questions.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the major development of global citizenship education (GCE) as part of Hong Kong’s secondary school curriculum guidelines, which reveals how it has developed from, first, asking students to understand their responsibilities as citizens to now challenging injustice and inequality in the world. Hong Kong’s curriculum guidelines started to teach GCE as a result of the last civic education guideline issued just before the return of sovereignty to China in 1997. Through documentary analysis, this paper examines how GCE has developed against the backdrop of globalization in Hong Kong’s various secondary school curriculum guidelines.

This study used documentary analysis to examine the developments in the teaching of GCE via Hong Kong’s official secondary school curriculum guidelines. It has studied the aims, knowledge and concepts that are related to GCE by coding the GCE literature and categorizing the findings from the curriculum guidelines.

From the coding and categorizing processes employed, it has been found that GCE in Hong Kong’s official curriculum guidelines has evolved from learning about rights and responsibilities in the 1990s to challenging injustice, discrimination, exclusion and inequality since the late 1990s. Indeed, understanding the world and especially globalization, in terms of comprehending the processes and phenomena through which people around the globe become more connected, has presented challenges for the teaching of civic education. For example, categories of GCE have developed from the simpler expression of concerns about the world to encompass moral obligations and taking action. Similarly, the concerns for the maintenance of peace that were studied initially have since grown and now include work about challenging inequalities and taking action on human rights violations.

This study would have implications for the understanding of GCE in Hong Kong as well as other fast-changing societies in this age of globalization, as civic education curricula need to respond to the impacts of globalization. GCE is an under-researched area, but topics concerning world/international/global affairs have been covered in Hong Kong secondary school curriculum guidelines for several decades.

This study aims to investigate the adoption and use of electronic voting (e-voting) system as an option to credible elections in Nigeria, as well as the factors that could influence the readiness of Oyo state citizens in Nigeria to use the system.

The study adopts the survey research design, while the Technology Readiness Acceptance Model provides the theoretical framework. A two-stage sampling procedure (random and convenience) was used to select 500 Nigerian citizens, who are of voting age, while data were collected with a structured questionnaire.

Findings reveal that the citizens are ready to use the e-voting system if adopted by the Nigerian Government. Optimism and innovativeness are positively correlated, and perceived discomfort and perceived insecurity are negatively correlated, with readiness to use e-voting system by Oyo state citizens. The Technology Acceptance Model constructs (perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use), as well as computer self-efficacy also have positive correlations with readiness to use of e-voting.

The population of the study was limited to only citizens in one state of the federation; hence, the results cannot be generalised to all citizens in Nigeria.

The study contributes to existing knowledge on adoption and use of technology and confirms that optimism and innovativeness are motivators and discomfort and insecurity are inhibitors of intention to use and actual usage of technology. Hence, these constructs should be taken into account and promoted when Nigeria is planning to adopt the e-voting system.

This paper could assist the Nigerian Government on the factors to consider when implementing the e-voting system.

This paper is one of the first pieces of empirical research that attempted to investigate the factors that could promote acceptance and use of the e-voting system in Nigeria.