Latvia is not ready for electronic elections, said the chairperson of the Central Elections Commission (CVK) Kristīne Saulīte in an interview to TV3 programme 900 seconds on Tuesday, the 7th of March.
This weekend she participated in monitoring of the parliamentary elections in Estonia. Saulīte explained that Latvia’s and Estonia’s election systems have many similarities, but there are also differences. As a positive aspect of Latvia’s system Saulīte mentioned the online voters register, which allows citizens to vote from any election site. Estonia, on the other hand, has an electronic voting system, which, as stressed by the chairperson of CVK, «is the result of 20 years of work and part of Estonia’s digital system».
In Estonia the electronic voting system was adopted over a course of a long time and they are as secure as they can be.
Estonians admit this type of election is 99% secure, but it will never be 100% secure, said Saulīte. She stressed again that adoption of this election system required a great deal of resources, including in the way the country thinks.
«We and most of the world are not ready for electronic elections. Estonia is unique in this regard. The country picked the digital course at the start of the century. On this path elections are an important but relatively small part,» said the head of CVK.
For Latvia to adopt electronic elections, it will be necessary to change the entire state policy,
says Saulīte.
On Sunday, the 5th of March, Estonia held parliamentary elections. Early voting commenced last Monday. Citizens were able to cast their votes online until Saturday evening. According to official results, 63.7% of Estonian citizens with voting rights participated in these elections. Slightly more than half of them voted online.
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