Open Access

ARTICLE

Computational Intelligence Approach for Municipal Council Elections Using Blockchain

Fatmah Baothman^*, Kawther Saeedi, Khulood Aljuhani, Safaa Alkatheri, Mashael Almeatani, Nourah Alothman

IS Department, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, 21551, Saudi Arabia

* Corresponding Author: Fatmah Baothman. Email:

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Computational Intelligence for Internet of Medical Things and Big Data Analytics)

Intelligent Automation & Soft Computing 2021, 27(3), 625-639. https://doi.org/10.32604/iasc.2021.014827

Received 20 October 2020; Accepted 21 December 2020; Issue published 01 March 2021

Abstract

Blockchain is an innovative technology that disrupts different industries and offers decentralized, secure, and immutable platforms. Its first appearance is connected with monetary cryptocurrency transactions, followed by adaptation in several domains. We believe that blockchain can provide a reliable environment by utilizing its unique characteristics to offer a more secure, costless, and robust mechanism suitable for a voting application. Although the technology has captured the interest of governments worldwide, blockchain as a service is still limited due to lack of application development experience, technology complexity, and absence of standardized design, architecture, and best practices. Therefore, this study aims to build an imperial example for a blockchain electronic voting (e-voting) application using digital identity management for fulfilling immutable, transparent, and secure distributed blockchain features. The paper reviews the current types of e-voting systems and discusses the standard processes. We propose a conceptual design for a blockchain providing a digital identity management service to secure the e-voting application results. The blockchain development process implemented in this study follows the Proof of Concept to verify the e-voting application’s function for illustrating the architecture and description of the application’s business process model. The development is based on the Ethereum platform, which allows the implementation of the Proof of Work consensus algorithm. The developed e-voting application saves time, requires fewer processes, and results in higher accuracy, more transparency, considerable voters’ privacy, and accountable system management. We expect that the e-voting blockchain application will impact governmental processes during the election, reduce spending, support digital transformation, and ensure fairness of results.

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