Al Wefaq campaigns against e-voting
by mahmood on 07/08/06 at 11:31 am · email · print
Bahrain’s biggest political society is campaigning against electronic voting in the municipal and parliamentary elections being held later in the year.
E-voting is not as safe as the traditional ballot box method, says Al Wefaq National Islamic Society.
Dangers include hacking, fraud and or a total breakdown of the system on polling day, says Al Wefaq information technology expert Khalil Almarzooq, who is a certified information systems auditor, with 17 years of experience.
The society is completely opposed to this new method of voting, he told the GDN last night. “When it comes to information technology, some measures should be taken to ensure information security. So far we have heard that certain regulations will be put up to secure the delicate information, but there is no way to be sure,” said Mr Almarzooq.
He said the traditional method was secure and could be fully trusted, as it involved many people. “This new method is governed by a single body and that raises many questions and fears,” said Mr Almarzooq, designated by the society to tackle the e-voting issue. Other concerns the society has are that of system failure, hacking and whether people will understand how to use the system, particularly the elderly.
There are many risks involved in connecting the voting centre to the Internet and there is a risk of someone hacking into the system, he said. “System failure is a huge risk factor in this. The whole voting procedure is one day and what if on that day the whole system fails, or even part of it,” said Mr Almarzooq.
“We may never know how many votes were originally cast. These are problems that shouldn’t be taken lightly.”
Identifying voters and ensuring they only vote once is another concern, he said. “Another doubt is on the number of times people will vote for a particular candidate, or if they are going to vote for more than one candidate at a time,” said Mr Almarzooq. In traditional methods, identifications can be checked and people who are voting can be seen by all, he said. But in an E-voting system, identification cannot be so easily checked and no- one really knows who is at the keyboard, said Mr Marzoog. “They are turning this into a playstation game which is absolutely absurd. We are all for the technology era, but at what cost ?” he said. Another concern, is people’s ability to use the e-voting system, said Mr Almarzooq. “How many grandparents do you know that can access the Internet?” he said. The society is organising a conference with other political societies next week to discuss the issue. A date has yet to be confirmed. Central Informatics Organisation officials will be invited to attend the conference, said Mr Almarzooq.
GDN :: Noor Toorani :: 7 Aug, ’06
