TIRANA, Jan.18 – The head of OSCE Presence in Albania Bernd Borchardt has warned that there is not sufficient time for the application of technology in the upcoming parliamentary elections that will be held on June 18.
In a televised interview on Tuesday said that e-voting and e-counting has certain priorities but also several shortcomings.
“Electronic voting is a very complex process that requires thorough planning as well as an intensive campaign for voters awareness,” Borchard said.
The OSCE diplomat dismissed claims of Albania’s opposition parties that e-voting, e-counting and biometric voter identification can be put in motion in the June elections.
“Before the 2013 elections, the former opposition parties demanded e-voting few months before the elections. At the time, OSCE suggested that the country needed more time to prepare for the introduction of technology. We are now facing the same situation, and ever since October 2016 we have told parties that e-voting requires more time,” Borchard said.
The head of OSCE Presence said he was skeptical about the application of a system which “would need to transmit data from remote areas to the central servers in Tirana without prior and thorough testing.”
Borchard recalled that Germany banned e-voting based on a decree by the Constitutional Court following concerns on transparency of voters.
“E-voting not necessarily generates trust,” Borchard said adding that the system requires a preliminary trust between all actors in the administration of elections.
“If all challenges are not addressed, than the public trust on election results will be weak,” Borchard warned.
He called on Albania to respect the basic principles of democracy and highlighted that OSCE ODIHR “can not recommend a specific system to any country” because “it is the exclusive right of Albanian authorities to decide on the best available model.”
Last week, the Democratic Party walked out of the Ad-Hoc Committee on Electoral Reform, following debates over the demands for the application of technology in the parliamentary elections. Members of the opposition accused the government of not favoring e-voting which according to them “guarantees the accuracy of vote.”
Members of the Socialist Party called on OSCE ODIHR to provide an opinion on whether e-voting is applicable at the current time. The co-chairman of the committee, Democratic Party MP Oerd Bylykbashi opposed the request saying that OSCE ODIHR must be asked on how “e-voting and e-counting can be done at the current state.”
Democratic Party has made e-voting and e-counting as one of its main conditions for the parliamentary elections of June 18.
