Colombia restarts electorate debate in the aftermath of the Peace Agreement

The peace that Colombia seems to be reaching demands not only a nationwide commitment, but also deep institutional changes that include the voting system.

In order to execute such a task, the Government has taken its first steps by installing the Special Electoral Mission, conceived to generate advice and turn the ship around on the old and questioned Colombian voting model.

President Juan Manuel Santos formalized the start of operations for the team, as part of fulfilling point number two of the peace agreement signed last November between the Government and the Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia (FARC).

This section refers to the “expansion” of democracy by means of “a greater transparency of the electoral system, which requires a series of immediate measures, especially in the regions where risks and threats persist, as well as an integral revision of the electoral regime, and of the make up and functions of the electoral authorities”.

The Colombian leader stated that this Mission will have three months, expiring in April, to craft “recommendations about the necessary adjustments of the norms and institutions to guarantee greater autonomy and independence of the electoral organization, as well as modernizing and increasing the transparency of the electoral system”.

Given the discredit the current voting model (manual voting with a pre-count) has in the nation, the parts delegated to external and independent entities the design of what could be the future Colombian electoral system, as well as recovering the credibility of the electoral organisms.

Specifically, six out of the seven members of the Mission were selected by the Carter Center, the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy and the political science departments of the National and Los Andes universities in Colombia; the last spot was granted to the Electoral Observation Mission (MOE), a local NGO.

With this measure, the country breaks the silence it had kept since 2015 on the modernization of its voting system. Until that date, there had been intermittent work with an advisory commission for the implementation of technology; there was even an international convocation that was attended by 16 companies, meant to carry a pilot test for automated voting.

Despite these efforts, the Colombian initiative to reform voting has been stalled in several occasions.  We hope this new momentum the country has found ends in the enforcement of the Law, which states that voting automation is mandatory, and with a system that has risked the will of the people far too many times being left behind.

Electoral automation in Peru looking for new ways ahead

Last December, the Peruvian National Council of the Magistracy (CNM) presented the surprising decision to announce that the head of the National Office of Electoral Processes (Onpe), Mariano Cucho, would not be ratified in his position.

According to the CNM arguments, Cucho’s non-fulfilment of some of the objectives planned for his three year tenure (2013-2016) triggered his exit. The delay in the application of e-voting was the item that carried the most weight in the CNM’s evaluation which ruled Cucho should be dismissed.

In the document stating his dismissal, the Council states that “electronic voting was one of (Cucho’s) main proposals, it was a part of his postulation report and a favourable indication for his appointment (…) However, the performance of our evaluation’s subject has only generated mistrust, due to results that have been less than satisfactory”.

Specifically, the document details how during Cucho’s term the number of districts with e-voting went down from 30 to 19, that the financial goals regarding automation were not met, and in the end there were no advances toward the implementation of electoral technology.

Peru has the legislation in place to modernize voting, and has an electronic voting model which has been undergoing testing for years. Despite this, the electoral authorities have not been up to the challenges that come from implementing an automated voting model.

For instance, instead of moving forward with voting machines and strengthening their security characteristics,  during the first round of voting – April 10th 2016 – the number of automated voting circuits had to be reduced.  Still, the results for these elections and for those in June (second round) were negative.

The reasons for the misuse of e-voting are rooted in the fact that the ONPE, which at first intended to follow best the practices in the region to design their e-voting system, has neglected its improvement.  Meanwhile, the organism has also neglected the election logistics and preparation, a fact that made evident during last year’s voting through the scant or null information that both voters and poll workers had.

The CNM’s decision opens a new possibility for automation in Peru. Currently, there are 13 people vying to become the head of the Onpe, and there are hopes that by late February there will be an appointment.  The delay in applying electoral technology has been costly for Chucho, but it could be the incentive that manages to do away with the indecisiveness regarding voting automation.

Failed bid, untested voting machines hound upcoming Ecuador polls

As Ecuador prepares to hold its general elections in less than a month, observers have expressed concerns over the use of an election technology which did not go through the regular procurement process.

This developed after the National Electoral Council (CNE) declared a failed bidding for the procurement of “service of data transmission between the CNE and the 1,818 Publication and Transmission Centers (Rtpa), used for the transmission of data from scanned precinct counts.”

Instead, the poll body has accepted a donation from the government of South Korea consisting of 2,000 digitalization and transmission machines.

Observers are worried, though, that the Korean machines will not be up to specifications.

While the CNE has expressed satisfaction over the system’s performance in a mock election, political parties have decried the lack of transparency in the testing. They are hoping that the next test on February 5 will shed light on their questions.

Former Dominican Republic president Leonel Fernández, who belongs to the observation team, said that he is concerned over several aspects of the polls including voter rolls, the IT system, and the scanners that will be used for the transmission of results.

In 2014, Ecuadorians had to endure a month-long delay before official results could be announced due to the failed performance of the Spanish company Scytl.  Now, voters are hoping against hope that the untried donated technology will somehow suit the country’s complex election needs.