I am glad to welcome you at this wonderful city. I find the selection of it as the venue of the Conference of Global Election Organizations and ACEEEO General Assembly Meeting highly symbolic. The first elections in this region were held already in times of the Roman Empire. Until the 18th century exactly on these shores of the lake Balaton the so called “stationery sand” was gathered, without which accelerated keeping of documents would be impossible. And finally, in this city the composer Imre Kálmán was born and worked, being the first one who introduced in operetta characters of democratic origin, not of noble birth. Thereby, a significant contribution of this city to the development of democracy, electoral system and technical means for its organization is obvious.

Association of Central and Eastern European Election Officials also can be proud of certain achievements in this region during 14 years of its work. Close co-operation between commissions – members of the Association is established, a number of important documents are worked out, the system of observation during elections and referenda is stated, exchange of opinion on topical issues of organization of the electoral process has been going on. And the first subject of the conference - “Legal remedies in electoral processes” - is dedicated exactly to the improvement of our achievements.

Nevertheless, the time does not stand still. It requires not only a general improvement but certain principled changes as well. Electronic voting can be considered as one of such mature changes. On the one hand it is undoubtedly a progressive step forward. On the other – the moral and technical aspects of electronic voting and the security of it are still ambiguous. We are about to exchange our opinions on this issue - that is also the second subject of the conference: “Standards of electronic voting”.

As already can be seen, we have to discuss topical questions, keeping in mind the existent achievements. I am sure that we will succeed. Not in vain, we find ourselves in a place which name combines both the ancient and the contemporary names of one and the same river that in the Middle Ages was called Fok but today – Sío.

I wish you all good luck in our proceedings!

Arnis Cimdars

Chairman of the Central Election Commission of Latvia
President of the ACEEEO Executive Board