Digital voting could be partially tested

TIRANA, July 27 – It is very likely that the next local elections, expected to be held next spring, Albania will use partial digital voting.
As a start it may be used partially in some areas, officials say.
The government is working on a pilot project to test fingerprint technology in elections.
Minister for Technology and Innovation Genc Pollo said this week that the project will be applied in some areas to see whether electronic voting could be used in local elections next year.
Implementing it requires consensus from the opposition on amending the electoral code, a thorny issued ever since the June 2009 elections, which the opposition Socialist Party insists were manipulated.
In last year’s parliamentary elections Albania for the first time used digital counting with scanning the ballots. Still its use did not bring an end to the claims of manipulation. On the contrary, it was exactly the counting process that is being contested from the opposition Socialists saying it was manipulated form the governing Democrats.
Pollo said that starting the use of the digital voting may start at the 2011 local elections but “if we have consensus that the opposition agrees to support the electronic voting in a number of town halls.”
The minister said everything depended on the good will and the vision so that there will be an electoral voting where the commissioner will have the smallest role and everything remains in the hands of the computer, which is impartial as far as political affiliation is concerned.
But he said that in next elections it will not be used in the 400 units of the local authorities, but only in a certain number that have the proper infrastructure.