Millions in public funds could be lost after the failure of two pilot projects involving electronic verification of voters and electronic counting of ballots.
TIRANA, June 19 – Officials at Albania’s Central Election Commission say two pilot projects involving electronic verification of voters and electronic counting of ballots have failed and will not be implemented in Sunday’s general election.
The two pilot projects were scheduled to be implemented in the country’s two largest regions by voter numbers, the counties of Tirana and Fier.
CEC officials first cancelled the e-counting project in the southwestern region of Fier due to technical problems. On Tuesday, CEC then ruled that the e-verification of voters in Tirana will also be carried out manually on the same grounds.
Tests showed around 11 percent of ID cards and passports could not be read by the e-system, because of damage
“The test had problems and showed no integrity. There were safety problems as well as operational issues in the process,” said Lefterije Lleshi, the head of CEC, which during the past few months has been operating with only four out of seven members due to a political row leading to the resignation of opposition proposed members.
An opposition Socialist Party representative said the SP was preparing to file a lawsuit against the CEC head and administration for the failure of the projects and the abuse of public funds.
Spanish company INDRA had been contracted to implement both projects for around a total of Euro 4 million, of which the e-counting of ballots in Fier, worth Euro 1.4 million, and the e-verification of voters, worth Euro 2.6 million.
While officially CEC has not announced how much it will pay in damages to INDRA, local media report CEC has to pay 70 percent of the amount for the unilateral cancellation of contract.
CEC had earlier cancelled a contract with Spanish company INDRA, which had been tasked to carry out the electronic counting of ballots in Fier County, which has the second highest number of voters in Albania. The pilot project victim to technical problems during preliminary tests.
Speaking on Monday, Lleshi said the commission had decided on the manual counting of the votes in the region of Fier where 16 MPs will be elected in of the June 23 general elections.
The failure of the e-counting was a result of 66 parties and one independent candidate registered to run in the Fier region. The high number made the optical reading of the ballets impossible. The maximum number of subjects the system could read was 42.
Some 48 MPs will be elected in the Tirana and Fier counties, around one-third of the 140-seat Albanian Parliament, under a regional proportional system. The two counties include five of Albania’s most populous districts, including the cities of Tirana, Fier, Kavaja and Lushnja.
Albania changed the electoral code a year ago to include the two pilot projects, among other things.
Election authorities hinted it was the fault of the Spanish company, which was immediately denied the claim. The opposition, on the other side, blamed the election authorities of the governing Democrats for making and causing such a failure.
