Study of electronic voting and internet public deliberation pilot applications

The studies for the two pilot applications will be the first actions about the formulation of the technological and organizational architectural characteristics of the pilot applications currently being developed and about the procurement and installation of the necessary basic systemic and hardware infrastructure for the progressive implementation of the systems currently being designed throughout the whole national mechanism. The studies will constitute a valuable preliminary tool for the development of the democratic representation procedures in general, and more specifically, for the Ministry of the Interior, Public Administration and Decentralisation, as the widespread application of public deliberation and electronic voting systems will: - Create an environment where the government and the citizens will be able to exchange opinions and ideas, so the programs and politics applied will correspond to the needs and the priorities of the citizens and involved organizations - Broaden the decision making process area, so that all the interested parties (social and professional organizations, single citizens) will try to accord to the programs goals - Give the government a knowledge and research tool for people to accept the strategies that are going to be implemented - Enrich the government and the ministers with ideas relating to political decisions and appliance of governmental priorities - Give the citizens and the interested organizations a better understanding of the constraints and the government’ s alternative choices relating to decisions application, bills and action programs - Encourage citizens participation, strengthening at the same time the citizens right to participate actively in democratic decision making process relating to political strategies - Support the ministers’ segregated roles and the government’ s responsibility in decision making process - Significantly accelerate the time needed for the issuance of opinion exchange results, and especially in critical issues where a rapid response in decision making is required - Enforce the citizens’ trust on democratic procedures - Save significant resources that will significantly reduce election costs by reducing the needs in human resources needed to support the election departments - Minimize the number of mistakes and invalid votes during the elections - Significantly accelerate the time needed for results release - Upgrade the transparency and reliability of election procedures by standardization of the processes - Ensure the correct votes counting and reduce the number of the currently systems mistakes - Encourage citizens’ participation and peoples’ with specific needs, especially during voting procedures by supporting at the same time the secrecy of the vote for those groups

<p>This project concerns the elaboration of two application studies relating to the development of secure and reliable public deliberation and electronic voting systems, aiming at helping the national mechanism, political forces and organizations to strengthen the democratic decision making process and to reinforce not only citizens participation and trust, but also other interested social bodies and professional syndicates in democratic processes and in governmental decisions. This project has not started yet as a call for tenders has just been published (March, 2007), and the work has not been assigned yet. The project will result in the following two basic studies: 1. Study for electronic voting pilot applications This study objectives concern the formulation of specifications and directions that will be used in the Electronic Voting Pilot Application Study, in a particular important sector of the political area, aiming at: - Analysis of the needs for adopting electronic voting systems - Expert and involved organizations opinions and positions registering - Recording international experience - Determine the essential functional characteristics of an electronic voting application for the national elections - Formulate the systems security and reliability criteria and specifications The Application Study will determine not only the characteristics of the system's implementation but also the characteristics of the work-out of the electronic voting pilot application, estimating at the same time the kind, number and cost of the necessary equipment (e.g. system characteristics, users, systems operation, processes etc) and of the software systems / applications. The study will include an analytical description of the processes and of the infrastructure that is needed in order to support the procedure as well as user manuals that will extensively describe the use of the application. 2. Study for public deliberation through the Internet This study aims at formulating the specifications and directions that will be used in the Public Deliberation Pilot Application Study through the Internet, in a particular important sector of the political area, aiming at: - Recording international experience - Analysis of the needs for adopting public deliberation through the internet - Expert and involved organizations opinions and positions registering - Determine the essential functional characteristics of a public deliberation application system covering issues that concern the country's governance (referendums, current issues discussions, declaration plans, bills, rough plans of decrees / decisions etc) - Formulate the systems security and reliability criteria and specifications The Application Study will determine not only the characteristics of the system's implementation but also the characteristics of the work-out of the pilot application, estimating at the same time the kind, number and cost of the necessary equipment (e.g. system characteristics, users, systems operation, processes etc) and of the software systems / applications. It will also record the current legislative framework and the Public Administration's actions for the implementation of activities similar to this project. The study will include an analytical description of the processes and of the infrastructures that are needed in order to support the procedure as well as user manuals that will extensively describe the use of the application.</p>

• Deliberation
• Information Provision
• Voting