Electronic voting and manual politics in Albania

Electronic voting and manual politics in Albania
By Alfred Peza

Today’s debate in Tirana between the left wing and right wing on electronic voting as part of the new electoral reform, brought me back in time when 13 years ago, far away from here, on the other side of the Atlantic, I saw for the first time what electronic voting and electronic ballot counting was in an electronic process.

The ballot papers on which the names of candidates in the race are written along with the political parties, the secret voting booth and the ballot box, were all replaced by several computers. In other words, they were replaced by computer touch screens, where voters could vote as easy as by touching the screen. It was the first Tuesday of November 2004 in Tallahassee. Along with another group of Albanian journalists, I had the chance to closely follow the voting day for the US presidential election. George W. Bush was running for a second term in office against his democrat rival, John Kerry.

Due to the problems that had led to a dramatic process filled with court appeals demanding ballots to be recounted in the race between George Bush and Al Gore in 2000 in Florida, another method of voting was demanded. After many discussions were held, aimed at avoiding the situation that was seen four years ago, authorities had finally decided to introduce electronic voting. However, this new way of voting had not eliminated the old traditional ways, which the US still continues to apply. From the postal voting to the latest method of voting through the aid of technology.

All the countries with electoral laws which are as advanced as their democratic systems, also have efficient systems of voting and ballot counting. This not only determines the winner and the loser of the elections rapidly, but it doesn’t leave room for disputes, confusion or tension either.

In general, in these countries and in these democracies, electronic ballot counting is the most important element of the entire electoral process, a process which enables not only a rapid result, but also an accurate counting without deforming the will of electors.

In Albania, in contrast to the past where the electoral reform has been voted at the last minute, since the very start of this new parliamentary term, a bipartisan parliamentary commission has been appointed to conduct the new electoral reform. The main objective is to address, through the new electoral law, all the problems identifiedby OSCE-ODIHR in its reports concerning the recent electoral races. One of the conditions that the Democratic Party had imposed to participate in the June 25 elections, was the introduction of technology in the process of voting and ballot counting.

The outstanding insistence of today’s opposition, as it was the case with the SP when it was in opposition, to introduce technology in the electoral process at any cost, reflects the lack of trust between people, parties and political sides in Albania. And this lack of trust is reasonable, if we consider the history of the 9 parliamentary elections that were held during these 27 years, without mentioning the local government elections and referendums.

The lack of trust has increased paranoia and fear up to a point that political sides now are convinced that the political opponent cannot be trusted about anything concerning the electoral process, because in a way or another, he will try to cheat, steal and deform the will of the voters. They will do this in two ways: Either by using state institutions, administration, corruption and even intimidation against its own supporters, or by manipulating the result through theft, tricks, schemes and all sorts of mechanisms, which, at the end of the day, help the ruling party to have a greater chance of winning.

The only hope, the only ally and the only chance to surmount this mountain of prejudice and lack of trust, is to demand political parties to find a solution not through the human and political will, but through technology. Through digital systems, through computers, servers, programs, software, tablets and all sorts of other inventions, which are thought to make it impossible for the opponent to win unfairly. However, this cannot be prevented if human will is able to manipulate even technological systems. So, if there’s a negative will, the sides can go as far as tampering computer programs and interfere in technologies even at the moment of voting, the moment when the data are transmitted or the moment of the ballot counting and the computation of the final result.

This means that however we spin it, political sides in Albania and other countries with more advanced democracies than ours, must overcome this stage and are condemned to come to an agreement with each other. They sit, talk and see look each other in the eye. There cannot be an ideal electoral process with digital technologies if the political class continues to operate with “manual” methods. Therefore, it needs to find the necessary mechanisms to boost confidence and enable both sides to control the entire process. Then, voting in a traditional way or in an electronic only matters about the speed with which the results are announced. All western democracies have gone through these paths before we have. For Albania, the time is now. The 2019 local government elections are the first test. The countdown has started.

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