An election is underway in Australia - but it has nothing to do with our major political parties. Nor is the traditional ballot box involved. An IT organisation has set up a system to allow its members to vote for a new Board of Directors online.
The Australian Information Industry Association hopes to be a forerunner in Internet elections.
"There's a high expectation that we're a bit of a leader, therefore the AIIA needs to be at the forefront of this technology," an AIIA spokesperson told ZDNet.
This is the first Internet election hosted by election.com in Australia, the AIIA's election service provider, and election.com hopes that news of the AIIA's lead will spread through the rest of the Australian market.
"If it shows that the leaders of the IT industry have confidence in the technology we're able to offer and puts a stamp of credibility on our services, more organisations will move online," election.com Australia's MD Frank Nesci said.
"There's definitely an interest from the Australian public to vote online if they're given the opportunity," Nesci said, "but those opportunities haven't been give to them yet".
AIIA agrees that the public in general is keen to move elections online.
Its members were given option to participate in the electral process by post but "no one took us up on that," the AIIA said.
Election.com believes that it's inevitable that public elections will be driven online in Australia although the Australian Electral Commission (AEC) said "it's definitely not likely to happen at the next elections".
In applying online elections at a Federal level, the AEC said "there's a number of issues that make it difficult in terms of integrity and security".
The Australian Labour Party's Senator Kate Lundy, an enthusiast of moving elections online, expressed reservations in areas of privacy, security and the digital divide, but said she encouraged "both public and private organisations in exploring the technology to make their own democratic processes more efficient".
In moving their annual elections online, AIIA hopes to remove some of the geographical and time restraints put on the CEOs - who are the only eligible voters - of its 350 member organisations.
AIIA claims that outsourcing its online elections has proved to be a cost-effective, and efficient solution to previous traditional methods.
"It goes beyond giving you peace of mind that the election service is being handled appropriately," the AIIA said.
"AIIA is pleased to be able to showcase the capability of the information industry. Organisations that want to increase participation in elections, especially where geography is a barrier, really should consider the technology," AIIA's executive director, Rob Durie, said.
