Experts divided on voting machines Submitted byNamibianSun101on Thu, 2014-09-04 01:00 TIME BOMB?: Legal experts have expressed different opinions over the lack of a paper trail with the use of electronic voting machines. PHOTO: NAMPA While Namibia awaits the arrival of 3 400 electronic voting machines (EVMs), legal experts are divided on whether the lack of a paper trail in this year’s general elections could spark a court challenge. The Electoral Bill, currently before parliament, makes provision for printouts to assure voters that their choice was correctly recorded on the machine. The printout is then supposed to be placed in a separate box by the voter to serve as evidence in the event that the election results are challenged in court. The machines are manufactured in India. Following a court challenge in that country, their Supreme Court ruled that the EVMs must be used in conjunction with a complementary paper trail for transparency. According to the Director of Elections at the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN), Paul Isaak, it is up to the minister of regional and local government to decide on the use of printouts. “We will not use the paper trail provision for this year’s elections when the Bill is passed and gazetted because there are no machines which can produce a paper trail printout yet,” said Isaak. “It will be up to the minister to determine when the paper trail should be used in an election.” Isaak said the Indian court ruling stipulated that the paper trail should be introduced gradually. Isaak said another audited printout which captures all the day’s activities will be printed at the end of the voting process. He said the voting machines are expected to arrive in Namibia around mid-October, just weeks before the elections. “We already have EVMs that were bought in 2009 to the tune of N$20 million. The new machines will cost N$35 million and will consist of 3 400 control units and 3 400 ballot units.” Namibian opposition parties have lodged several court challenges against election results over the years. The latest court case started in 2009 when the Rally for Democracy and Progress led eight other parties to court to contest the election results. The case was eventually dismissed by the Supreme Court, but the ECN was criticised for the manner in which it had conducted the elections. In 2005 opposition parties won a court order resulting in the recount of the November 2004 election results following allegations of rigging and irregularities. Constitutional expert Nico Horn is of the opinion that the absence of a paper trail at this year’s elections will not make a difference to whether parties go to court or not. “When you look at the last election challenge it was mainly about people’s conduct at the polling stations, issues at the verification centres. It had little to do with false ballot papers or related issues,” Horn said. Windhoek lawyer Dirk Conradie said once a provision is in an Act, it must be implemented. “If it is not used while the law says it must be used, it would be illegal,” Conradie said. The EMVs have so far been tested in the Ohangwena regional by-election and the Bukalo and Otjinene local authority elections. WINDHOEK ELVIS MURARANGANDA
Posted on: Fri, 05 Sep 2014 08:01:21 +0000
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