|
THE
POSITION OF ACEEEO
on the introduction and use of information technology
in elections
We,
the members of the Association of Central and Eastern
European Elections Officials, gathered at the annual
conference held in June, 2000, in Warsaw, Poland, in
view of the fact that strengthening free, honest and
transparent electoral processes as well as the universal
and confidential nature thereof constitutes a special
duty of elections offices, in acceptance of the fact
that each voter has the right to freely participate
in elections and express his will on the basis of the
access to information within the electoral process,
in acceptance of the need to improve the management
of the electoral process and to enhance the effectiveness
of actions undertaken by elections officials and in
consideration of the fact that spreading information
technologies, in particular the Internet, offer completely
new opportunities in the area of electoral procedures,
have approved the following statement of position:
1.
All the applications of information technology need
to be adequately legitimised by the electoral law and
precise by-laws thereto. As far as practicable, the
regulations should be clear and comprehensible to the
electoral bodies responsible for their implementation,
to political parties and organisations involved in the
election process, as well as the citizens.
2.
Information technology used for electoral purposes should
be introduced gradually, thus gaining the confidence
of both election officials and voters. In particular,
this approach shall apply to the act of voting, in view
of the necessity to ensure its confidentiality and establish,
beyond all doubt, voters' identity. Elements that need
to be taken into account include tradition, customs
and habits, as well as the role of the citizen's actual
presence at the electoral office, in the context of
the political and civic life.
3.
Access to information, as well as the free flow of electoral
data, including personal information on candidates to
representatives bodies shall be ensured, in conformity
to the relevant domestic legislation intended to safeguard
the confidentiality of personal life, while maintaining
accessibility of information on the activities of public
bodies and persons seeking to hold public functions.
4.
It is necessary to ensure that the persons and entities
implementing information technology solutions should
remain fully responsible for the protection and integrity
of data and electoral procedures. Consequently, it shall
be necessary to develop procedures used in order to
verify and validate the functioning of IT tools and
methods in view of the goals they are intended to serve.
At the same time, legal procedures should ensure civic
and institutional control over the collecting and processing
electoral data, in particular electoral results.
Warsaw,
14 - 16 June, 2000
Results
of the Warsaw conference
|
