The Legislature a fundamental aspect of democratic governance in any nation provides an interactive, participatory and
consultative platform for citizens’input in the decision-making process by harnessing Information and Communication Technology
(ICT) tools for improving parliamentary processes, services and functions. In this study, we investigate the extent of the application of
ICT in parliament, particularly in emerging economies, making distinctions while identifying the most important requirements,
technical challenges and proposing solutions to addressing the challenges. Some of the major challenges explored included limited
resources available to parliaments, insufficient technical knowledge among legislative staff, little citizen engagement and lack of
standardized software in addition to security issues. Solutions proposed include the introduction of s-parliament concept for a smarter
parliament through better utilization of big data and Internet of Things (IoT), better document management and storage systems, use of
XML-based standardized software, improved ICT security, increasing public trust and enhance citizen participation in the decisionmaking
process.
Abdulsalam S. Mustafa : Computer Science Department, Khazar University
Baku, Azerbaijan.
Mahammad Sharifov : Computer Science Department, Khazar University
Baku, Azerbaijan.
e-parliament, ICT in parliament, Internet of Things, big data, XML
In designing and developing websites an important
component of e-parliament, it is important for parliaments
to first determine the ever-increasing demands of the
citizens as parliamentary websites are meant to be
citizens- centric, accessible, easy to use, open and
transparent to engage the electorates in the democratic
process. Only few parliaments consider it important to
publish open data on their websites including data on
salaries of MPs, MPs attendance, committee reports,
expenditures and oversight over the executive. ICT offers
benefits to parliaments and is the first step towards the
adoption of e-parliament.
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