The Council of Europe provides support to the Inter-Institutional Working Group (IWG) of the Central Electoral Commission of the Republic of Moldova (CEC) in the process of elaborating the concept and action plan on the digitisation of the electoral process and piloting e-voting as an alternative voting method in the Republic of Moldova.
At the meeting on 10 February 2022, Council of Europe (CoE) experts provided IWG with CoE standards and best practices on e-voting. Thus they discussed how these are reflected in the Recommendations of the Committee of Ministers CM/REC(2017)5 on e-voting standards and CM/REC(2022)10 on the use of information and communication technologies in electoral processes to member states. Participants also referred to the recommendations in the Roadmap for the implementation of e-voting in the Republic of Moldova.
The CoE experts addressed several preliminary questions on the legal framework for internet voting. They focused on issues related to the scope of internet voting, the feasibility of remote voting (including associated risks) and multiple voting, reconciling secrecy with transparency and traceability, the financial and human resources needed to maintain constitutionally acceptable internet voting, etc. In addition, the regulation of internet voting was discussed from different perspectives, considering ad hoc regulation, the prospects of formal law regulation (constitutional law), but also lower level regulation (technical requirements). The discussion also included topics related to accessibility, security, risk assessment and dispute resolution mechanisms.
In the coming months, at the request of the GLI and/or the CEC, further detailed assistance will be provided to develop the concept and action plan for the digitisation of the electoral process and the piloting of e-voting in the Republic of Moldova.
This activity is funded and implemented by the Council of Europe Project "Improving Electoral Practice in the Republic of Moldova, Phase II".
