MINSK, 11 June (BelTA) - The Central Election Commission (CEC) of Belarus has developed a concept to digitalize the electoral process and will discuss it with all stakeholders, Chairman of the Central Election Commission Igor Karpenko told the media after his meeting with Belarusian President, Chairman of the Belarusian People’s Congress Aleksandr Lukashenko on 11 June, BelTA has learned.
“We have developed a concept for the electoral process digitalization. It does not mean that we are going to hold presidential election in a new electronic format. We have a very pragmatic look at it. We need to understand what to do and what to leave out. The concept needs to be discussed. The president has given the go-ahead for us to discuss this concept and suggest it to all the stakeholders to see what elements are acceptable today,” Igor Karpenko said.
According to him, when developing the document, specialists took into account the experience of neighboring countries, which in pursuit of a beautiful picture with electronic devices throw huge amounts of money into the purchase of equipment, software, and in the end get a lot of problems with its further operation and maintenance. “The electoral process cannot be subject to any external influence,” the CEC chairman said. “Therefore, the concept is aimed at ensuring that we first of all develop our own domestic product, that there is a domestic operator (either it will be a government body similar to the CEC, or an organization that will deal with digitalization issues). We are looking at these issues in an integrated fashion.”
The CEC head stressed that security and ensuring electoral sovereignty were certainly at the top of the agenda. “We cannot allow anybody from outside to influence or manipulate our system, solve their geopolitical issues by influencing our electoral system,” he said.
“We have developed a concept for the electoral process digitalization. It does not mean that we are going to hold presidential election in a new electronic format. We have a very pragmatic look at it. We need to understand what to do and what to leave out. The concept needs to be discussed. The president has given the go-ahead for us to discuss this concept and suggest it to all the stakeholders to see what elements are acceptable today,” Igor Karpenko said.
According to him, when developing the document, specialists took into account the experience of neighboring countries, which in pursuit of a beautiful picture with electronic devices throw huge amounts of money into the purchase of equipment, software, and in the end get a lot of problems with its further operation and maintenance. “The electoral process cannot be subject to any external influence,” the CEC chairman said. “Therefore, the concept is aimed at ensuring that we first of all develop our own domestic product, that there is a domestic operator (either it will be a government body similar to the CEC, or an organization that will deal with digitalization issues). We are looking at these issues in an integrated fashion.”
The CEC head stressed that security and ensuring electoral sovereignty were certainly at the top of the agenda. “We cannot allow anybody from outside to influence or manipulate our system, solve their geopolitical issues by influencing our electoral system,” he said.
