Technology in Majlis elections

The Sultanate of Oman has evolved by adopting new technology for Majlis Ash'shura elections for the Tenth Term, as part of a development recognised as the world's first in this field, and this has been documented by history.

The extraordinary success of the elections, with participation reaching 65 per cent of the 753,000 voters over the age of 21 who have the right to vote, is a big achievement and advancement for the country in the domain of decision-making engagement.

There is no doubt that Oman's shura experience has witnessed legislative and organisational improvement in terms of quantity and quality in keeping with societal growth on one hand and technical advancement on the other. Also, introducing special applications such as (Intekhab) as a strict and fair means of managing the polls and electronic voting represents an impressive success within the framework of the electronic transformation of all relevant transactions and demonstrates the extent of development witnessed in this aspect.

The high degree of confidence in the nation's capacities and competent cadre made it possible to use contemporary technologies in the important shura elections this year and in the municipal council elections last year. Without this confidence, it would have been challenging to do so.

The competent national cadre, who successfully leveraged technological advancements, have transformed the once intricate and delicate voting process into one that is incredibly simple and convenient. Furthermore, it is worth noting that all efforts for the elections, including the electoral centres, equipment, and committees of the electoral centres, as well as the expenditure and expenses spent, were dedicated to holding elections in all the governorates. All of this was overcome electronically by the technological advancements of our youth.

Both humanely and conventionally, the elections were a calculated risk. However, the new electronic version solved all the old problems. The young people in charge of the elections focused on addressing the electronic repercussions and how to cope with them, avoiding the traps of network pressure, and safeguarding the servers by creating walls and firewalls to prevent any efforts to hack the (Intekhab) app system.

Perhaps the national triumph made in this area by supplying all of the technological and cyber security criteria contributed to the technical elections succeeding beyond all expectations.

Furthermore, the safety and precision of voting without any human involvement in the voting, counting, and other procedures observed by the elections, as well as the numerous myths spun around them, have all become a thing of the past that will not be repeated.

Indeed, the Omani society's reaction to technological development in all of its sects and divisions, as well as its assimilation of contemporary technology through electronic voting, is a great achievement. It reflects the society's adoption of this technology and its use in selecting new members of the Majlis Ash'shura.

There is also a national faith in the value of electronic voting, as seen by the electoral interest observed in comparison to conventional methods, during which the rush and bustle that preceded the election stages vanished.

The amazing results and achievements we have achieved in these elections, which are considered a major national event, indicate the degree of our electoral, political, and democratic growth.

This experience represents some of our beliefs about how to handle our affairs and achieve our goals in accordance with our values and principles, and to display this to the world on a golden platter.

Naturally, benefiting from technical lessons in elections has become a fertile field for creating work comparable to elections in all civil society institutions and utilising the experience available in managing elections in others.

We expect that these efforts will bear fruits and hasten advancement to other more complicated phases, allowing electronic elections to become easy and manageable, and that these experiences will contribute to our growth in the electronic transformation system in our work and in all future endeavours.