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Paper short abstract

Election technologies do not prevent rigging. However, they modify practices and conceptions of citizenship. Based on the case of Chad, the paper shows that while biometric voter registration did not increase the overall transparency of the 2016 election, it modified the routines of the political game.

Paper long abstract

International donors and electoral advisors seem more and more sceptical about the use of costly election technologies in countries with no centralized population register. Such technological solutions are, however, still implemented in many countries. Based on fieldwork conducted in Chad before, during and after the 2016 presidential election, this presentation explains why biometric voter registration did not prevent rigging and shows that there is no good technological response to inherently political problems. But while biometric voter registration did not increase the overall transparency of elections, it raised citizens' expectations, became the most debated issue during the campaign and after the election, and in the end modified the routines of the political game.