Amendment of Electoral Act 208/2015: the 3% threshold, the IT infrastructure of the Central Electoral Bureau and transparency in the counting of votes.
Draft law amending and supplementing
Act no. 208 of 20 July 2015 on the election of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies and on the organisation and functioning of the Permanent Electoral Authority
SOLE ARTICLE → the reasons
Act no. 208 of 20 July 2015 on the election of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies and on the organisation and functioning of the Permanent Electoral Authority, published in the Official Gazette no. 553 of 24 July 2015, as subsequently amended and supplemented, is amended and supplemented as follows:
In article 92¹, paragraphs (3), (4) and (5) are repealed. → the reasons
(2) In article 94, paragraph (2), letter a) is amended and shall read as follows:
“1% of the total number of validly cast votes at national level, or 10% of the total number of validly cast votes in at least 4 electoral constituencies, for all electoral competitors;”
(3) In article 94, paragraph (2), letter b) is amended and shall read as follows:
“in the case of political alliances and electoral alliances, to the 1% threshold provided for in letter a) there shall be added, for each member of the alliance, a single percentage point of the validly cast votes in all electoral constituencies, without being able to exceed 5% of those votes.”
(4) Article 103¹ is amended and shall read as follows:
“(1) The Permanent Electoral Authority shall ensure the operation, at the seat of the Central Electoral Bureau, of an IT infrastructure fulfilling the following objectives:
a) it ensures the operation of the IT system for centralising the data from the minutes recording the results of the voting;
b) it ensures the real-time storage of duplicates of the databases generated by the IT system for monitoring turnout and preventing illegal voting, as well as of the logs of the machines on which it runs, in order to facilitate their analysis and transparency.
(2) The IT infrastructure provided for in paragraph (1) shall be unique and shall comprise servers, data storage systems, communications and security equipment, as well as licences and software applications, being intended exclusively for the application of the provisions of this law.
(3) The IT system for centralising the data from the minutes recording the results of the voting and the IT system for monitoring turnout and preventing illegal voting may be accessed for the real-time viewing of the data, from the seat of the Central Electoral Bureau, by the representatives of the Central Electoral Bureau and those of the Permanent Electoral Authority, on the basis of access rights established by decision of the Permanent Electoral Authority.
(4) The Permanent Electoral Authority shall provide the assistance and technical support for the operation of the equipment and software applications provided for in paragraph (2).
(5) The Permanent Electoral Authority shall provide the software applications and/or IT services to be used by the Central Electoral Bureau for centralising the data from the minutes recording the results of the voting, as well as the IT equipment necessary for the centralisation of the results of the voting by the Central Electoral Bureau. These shall operate within the IT infrastructure provided for in paragraph (1).
(6) The software applications provided for in paragraph (5) shall be certified by the Permanent Electoral Authority and made available by it to the political parties and to the organisations of citizens belonging to national minorities taking part in the elections, upon their written request.
(7) The Permanent Electoral Authority shall ensure, throughout the day of the voting and the following day, the publicity of the data concerning the number of voters who have turned out, and of the information resulting from the verification of the correlations in the minutes recording the results of the voting, obtained through the IT system for monitoring turnout and preventing illegal voting.”
(5) In article 110, paragraph (1) is amended and shall read as follows:
“The Permanent Electoral Authority, with the support of the National Institute of Statistics, shall ensure the implementation and management of the IT system for monitoring turnout and preventing illegal voting, on the basis of the data and information in the Electoral Register and in the Register of polling stations.”
(6) In article 110, paragraph (3) is amended and shall read as follows:
“For the implementation and operation, during the elections, of the IT system for monitoring turnout and preventing illegal voting, use shall as a rule be made of the IT infrastructure held by the central and local public administration authorities and by educational establishments.”
(7) In article 110, paragraph (4) is amended and shall read as follows:
“The organisation of elections, referendums and other popular consultations, as well as the administration of the processes specific to them, including the counting of the votes, with the exception of guarding and public-order activities, shall be carried out exclusively by the electoral bureaux, namely the Central and the Local ones. Breach of this provision constitutes an offence and shall be punished by imprisonment from 7 to 10 years.”
(8) In article 110, paragraph 8 is repealed.
Comments on this text
Comments here go into the document’s section of the Sovereigntist forum. One argues on the text, with reasons.
See the whole discussion in the forum →