The complainant said organizational risks that could affect the outcome of e-voting have not been dealt. This would also harm the interests of the applicant as a candidate standing in the elections, they claimed.

The applicant said they could not check whether a vote cast for them would actually be registered because the code of the e-voting voter application is secret, the software is not audited and the election server is not under the supervision of auditors.

Additionally, they criticized that electronic voting ends before polling day (October 17) arguing this means voters casting paper ballots and e-voters are not treated equally. 

The National Electoral Committee said the dependability and reliability of the software have been checked during the trial of the system, where all e-voting procedures were performed in the presence of observers and auditors.

In addition, the system has been subjected to an ISKE audit, technical penetration testing, and a risk management plan has been prepared.

These are prerequisites for starting e-voting, which arise from the law, and have been met, the committee said.

In order to verify the integrity of electronic voting, process and data audits will be performed by an independent auditor.

The duration of e-voting meanwhile is regulated by law, the amendment of which is not within the competence of either the National Electoral Committee or the State Electoral Office.

The committee noted that it is possible to vote at polling stations throughout the whole election week (October 11-16), and that other alternative voting methods such as voting at the location of the voter and voting at home will not be available throughout the whole election week either.

For these reasons, the committee decided to reject the applicant's request to relinquish e-voting.

The local elections take place next week. Advanced voting takes place online between October 11-16 and the election day is Sunday, October 17.

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