CEC competences concerning technology in elections

(amended by Law No. 101/2020, dated 23 July 2020)

1. The CEC shall have the competence to explore, experiment, and decide to on the use of information technology systems and/or equipment in elections, in order to cover specific aspects and/or procedures of the electoral process, engage foreign consultancy for this purpose, as well as procure information technology systems or equipment and also their operation service. CEC shall have the obligation to implement the use of information technology systems and/or equipment in elections via pilot projects in no less than 10 percent of the number of voters in each implementation stage.

2. The CEC shall have the competence to install and use video-monitoring systems in voting centres, as well as when manual ballot counting is conducted in BCC, in order to monitor and prove the regularity of the process in their internal premises. The videomonitoring system may not be installed in voting centres in a manner that infringes or jeopardises voting secrecy. When it does not implement it by itself, the CEC shall have the right to procure the installation or also the operation of the video-monitoring system.

3. The use of information technology systems or equipment shall be carried out in compliance with the specific rules on special procedures and aspects of the process that are covered by information technology systems or equipment. Procedural rules for this purpose shall be approved by CEC normative act.

4. Information technology systems or equipment that CEC decides to use in elections must first of all seek to ensure the electronic identification of voters and their post-election verification, voting with and through electronic equipment, and machineassisted counting of cast ballots, and they must be applicable for at least five consecutive electoral processes.

5. The identification, selection, and use of information technology systems or equipment shall be subject to the principles of legality, transparency, inclusiveness, security, efficiency, and sustainability.

6. Prior to each electoral process, information technology systems or equipment shall be subjected to operational testing by the CEC in public sessions and according to a precise and detailed procedure, selecting randomly from each electoral zone not less than three percent of equipment to be used and simulating electoral operations for a number of voters that is not lower than 50.

7. Following each electoral process, after the announcement of the final election results and the establishment of the elected bodies, the CEC shall, in public sessions and according to a detailed procedure, carry out the verification of information technology systems or equipment used to vote and count ballots in elections, by manually counting the ballots in no less than 10 percent of voting centres and comparing the result to the result produced by the information technology systems or equipment. The voting centres shall be selected randomly by the CEC from each electoral zone.

8. The results of pre-election testing and post-election verification of information technology systems or equipment shall condition the CEC decision-making on the future use of technology. The pre-election testing and the post-election verification results may become subject of criminal investigation in the event they disclose information and raise suspicions on the commission of criminal offences through misuse of information technology systems or equipment in elections.