LEVERAGING TECHNOLOGY FOR TRANSPARENT AND CREDIBILE ELECTIONS

Legal regulations and brief history According to the Constitutional provisions, direct elections in Albania are conducted for: - Albanian Assembly (Parliament) - Local government Bodies (Mayor-executive body and municipal councils -representative body ) - Referendums.

Legal regulations and brief history The Assembly and Local government Bodies are elected every four years by general,direct and secret voting. Members of Parliament and municipal councils are elected by regional proportional system (formula d'Hond and Sainte-Laguë) through multi-name electoral zones/with closed lists. Heads of local units are elected by the majority system in one round

Legal regulations and brief history Elections are conducted only in the polling stations with ballot papers where the voter has the right to choose only one option. Vote counting is done manually. Until 2005 the counting has been done in Voting Centers By the 2005 elections and onwards, vote counting has been concentrated. In the last local elections of 2015 there were 90 ballot counting centers, one for each electoral administration zone. There were in total 5301 voting centers

Legal regulations and brief history Albania  A country with unconsolidated democracy.  has only 25-years tradition of pluralist elections,  there is a high level of distrust among political parties. CEC  aims to make the process more credible,  its activity is totally transparent,  in the presence of the parties in process

The operation processes CEC  to facilitate the process and  to be more transparent, has carried out:  The setting up ( ongoing) of IEMIS (Integrated Elections Management Information System).  Provision /equipment of Ballot Counting Centers with IT(information technology).

The operation processes All CEC meetings are open to the public  The agenda of the materials discussed are published electronically,  meetings are broadcasted on-line on CEC official website.  decisions which enter into force are published within 24 hours.

The operation processes (counting,transmmition and publication of results Since 2009 all BCCs was possible complete transparency so all attendees could see each ballot in the counting process. BCC consist of 10 tables for ballot counting. At each table there is a camera that enables the appearance of ballots in monitors and records them on a computer. All devices in the BCC (server, computers, cameras, monitors, etc.) are manageable in a computer network which is connected via Web to the CEC servers.

The operation process (counting,transmission and publication of results) Immediately following the tabulation of the results of each Voting Centers, through a procedure approved by the CEC it is realized the transmission of results to the server of the CEC. The whole process of counting the Ballot Ccounting Centers is managed by the Election Administration Zone Commission through the interaction of counting teams. One of the modules of IEMIS system is called "consolidation of results" and it manages the entry, control and transmission of results from Ballot Counting Centers to CEC.

Results input flow

Publication of information The information of results sent electronically to the server of the CEC, through a second module "Election night results“ which is published progressively as preliminary elections result in the Media Hall and on its website In any case, information is accompanied by the total number of Voting Centers in the respective electoral zone and the number of VCs on which the result is calculated as well as the fact that this result is preliminary. This process continues until the last ballot paper is counted for each respective electoral zone.

The View of website

Aggregate table of results for one constituency is printed from the database of results and after being controlled it is adopted by CEAZ. Database of results created by the transmission of preliminary results serves to the tabulation of the official outcome of the election If during the data entry and transmission of preliminary results would apply strictly the procedures provided in the act of CEC, the accuracy of the result is guaranteed. Usage of database for preliminary results

This way of acting from one election to another has been improved and has grown the credibility of electoral subjects and of the public to the transmission system and to the publication of preliminary results. To correct inaccuracies, CEC, before the approval of official result, mainly (on its own initiative) or at the request of electoral subjects, makes checking of the accuracy of the database of the results by comparing with the original tables of results compiled by counting groups/teams. Usage of database for preliminary results

Administration of ballot papers  Storehouses where ballot papers are kept is equipped with surveillance cameras.  Every party has the access to see from its own office the images of the storehouse where there are ballot papers until the final declaration of results and their disposal.

f In the future During this process there have been attacks from outside the system which are encountered without consequences. CEC aims in the future to increase the accuracy in entering the preliminary results in the system and strengthen the safety of all information technology system for this process in hardwer as well as in software

In the future The final stages for completion of IEMIS (Elections Integrated Management Information System) with all modules: Completed modules or in the process of completing  Attendance of the electoral materials distributed.  Management of all functions on e-day (opening of voting, participation in a certain hour, suspense of voting, and closing of voting). -from VC to CEAZ the information is provided through mobile, from CEAZ to CEC electronic transmission is done via-web (it is aimed in the future to equipp all VC with supplies for the same transmission).

In the future  Module for the management of the process for registration of electoral subjects,verification and validation of the right of candidates to run, publication on internet. It is aimed to make this registration online.  Module for the administration of information for the finance and the expenses in the election campaign of the electoral subjects. It is aimed the reporting of the electoral subjects to be done online.  Election maps with various information in the website of CEC, is aimed to be developed through Web-GIS (Web- Geographic information system).

In the future Modules planned to be developed Module for the management of ballot papers, random selection in listing, design of ballot paper and preparation form printing Module for the management of information for the electoral administrative divisions (qark, municipality, election administration zone,counting centers and voting centers); Module for the management of data for election administration Module for financial management for commissions of second level; Module for allocation of seats and the history; Module for the preparation of reports for the Election Bulletin

Future Challenges for the Technology Electronic Voting In 2012 was done the amendment of the election law for piloting the use of technology and information in the process of voting and counting of ballots. It was planned for the parliamentary elections 2013  It was piloted in one Election Administration Zone the project on Electronic Counting System (ECS)  And in another Zone was piloted Voter Verification and Registration System (EVS). Both projects failed to be implemented in their prior testing The main reason was the lack of trust among participating parties in elections.  Electronic Voting remains one of the challenges for the future.

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