Ouagadougou: Rasman Pagbelguem successfully defended his doctoral thesis, which proposed new decision-making methods designed to reduce the delays, costs, and risks of manipulation surrounding the awarding of public contracts and the organization of elections. Rasman Pagbelguem earned his doctorate with highest honors.
According to Burkina Information Agency, the research relies on mathematical methods based on the concept of metrics, a measure of the distance between decision-makers' preferences. The objective is to identify, among several possible choices, the one that generates the least disagreement, in order to guarantee a consensual and rational decision.
In the field of public procurement, these tools would make it possible to quickly designate the best company based on the criteria submitted by the candidates, without resorting to lengthy deliberation sessions.
Regarding the electoral process, the researcher notes that the current voting system remains vulnerable to manipulation and corruption, in addition to representing a high cost to the state. He proposes a transition to an approval voting system, which could be organized digitally, with results available in a few hours and at a lower cost.
Rasman Pagbelguem announced his intention to translate this work into software applications, in collaboration with engineers and programmers, with a view to proposing them to the relevant public institutions. The thesis was validated by the jury at the end of the defense, with the highest distinction.
The chairman of the jury, Professor Blaise Som, praised the quality of the work and highlighted the value of the proposed method in overcoming the limitations of traditional voting systems, which he considers "divisive". He explained that current voting systems, like the French model, encourage voters to rally around a single candidate, which fragments the electorate.
The method derived from the thesis, he explained, allows each voter to express an order of preference between several candidates rather than a single choice, which makes it possible to designate the personality receiving the least disagreement among all the voters. According to Professor Blaise Som, such a mechanism would strengthen the legitimacy of the elected official, who could no longer be perceived as the representative of a single party or group, but as a widely shared choice.
Professor Som also estimated that this type of research would make it possible to develop algorithms adapted to the Burkinabe context, at a lower cost to the State.