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 the strengthening of a free, honest and transparent electoral process as well as of 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, In consideration of the fact that the spreading of information technologies, in particular the Internet, offering completely new opportunities in the area of electoral procedures, have approved the following statement of position: 1. All 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, custom 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 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, white at the same time maintaining accessibility of information on the activities of public bodies and persons seeking to hold public functions. 4. It is necessary to ensure that persons and entities implementing information technology solutions 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 collection and processing of electoral data, in particular electoral results.

Warsaw, 14th - 16th June, 2000