E-Election Advocate Slams Reform Party's Voting System
IT expert and commentator Linnar Viik said the Reform Party's scandalized internal web platform does not qualify as an e-election system and is an embarrassment to e-voting.
“Such things don't have a place in 21st Century Estonia,” Viik said in an interview to uudsed.err.ee.
A supporter of Estonia's cutting-edge e-elections, Viik lauded the country's voting technology as secure, audited and up to date.
"It is very unfortunate that one political party's eager internal decision to open electronic channels of participation to its members has even come to be described with the word "e-election" in public discourse," Viik said.
"Certainly the party needs to draw conclusions on how its eagerness for innovative activities can be made into something that is transparent, secure, audited, and would never give anyone a chance to cast doubt on whether a certain party's internal elections are prone to manipulation and full of security holes," Viik said.
Journalists recently exposed a vote rigging scheme in the Reform Party's internal leadership election in May, and in another election in 2011. MEP Kristiina Ojuland was thrown out of the party as the suspected culprit and several other officials admitted to accusations.