Electronic voting could be tested in the next national elections. The vice-president of the Central Electoral Commission says so. According to Pavel Postica, if there will be political will and the project will be approved in Parliament, at the next national election, the functionality of the e-Voting system will be verified. According to experts, the online voting system gives voters more flexibility and will put an end to the endless queues created on election day at polling stations abroad.
The Central Electoral Commission has approved the concept of the e-Voting system, according to which in order to be able to vote online, voters must benefit from the electronic ballot or the digital signature, informs ipn.md.
CEC representatives say that if there is political support for this concept, the e-Voting system will be tested in the next national election.
“We, the representatives of the CEC in partnership with SIS, the Information Technology Service, the Public Services Agency, with the political support of the Parliament, would be ready to elaborate and test on a small scale the implementation of internet voting in the next national elections, but only in a few localities. It is premature and it would not be honest from the CEC to promise the implementation of electronic voting in a very short time, without being tested “, said Pavel Postica during the show “Freedom with Dorin Galben” on TV8.
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According to experts, electronic voting is the safest voting option and will provide access to the electoral process for all citizens in the diaspora or for those who are unable to go to the polls on election day.
“The Republic of Moldova needs electronic voting because in the last elections in 2016 we have faced a series of problems that have been repeated. It is about the exhaustion of ballot papers in several polling stations, the second problem concerns the endless queues that have been created at the polling stations in the diaspora. In addition, some voters had to travel hundreds or even thousands of miles to vote. If the online voting system fails, all citizens will have the opportunity to physically vote at the ballot box. That is, online voting would take place 3-4 days before election day. During the election week, from Monday to Wednesday we vote electronically, those who can and want to do so, on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, the competent bodies can decide if there have been cyber attacks. If this has happened, all citizens are invited to the polls and electronic voting is not taken into account “, said the IPRE expert, Mihai Mogîldea.
Recently, during the show “Rezoomat”, the vice-president of PAS Olesea Stamate mentioned that, for the time being, there is no consensus within the majority faction regarding the implementation of electronic voting.
“The concept assumes that online voting will not be implemented immediately, there will be parallel elections just to see how the system works. Online voting is not only about the diaspora, but also about people with reduced mobility, people in hospitals, people who travel very often. Once you have voted online and trusted the digital authentication mechanisms, I don’t think you will ever want to vote with a physical presence. I don’t know anyone who wants to sit in endless rows to vote, “said digitization policy expert Victor Guzun.
Olesea Stamate says that electronic voting is an extremely large investment and could present risks of fraud in elections inside or outside the country, if drastic cyber security measures are not taken.