Electronic voting plan suffers setbacks

THE Government’s high-profile campaign to introduce its new electronic voting system suffered several setbacks yesterday after a day of concerted attack from the opposition.

In a day-long onslaught, Fine Gael and Labour pushed the Government onto the back-foot in relation to software testing, the advertising campaign, and constitutional issues surrounding the €40 million scheme.

However, while Junior Environment Minister Pat ‘the Cope’ Gallagher agreed to withdraw a controversial promotional leaflet showing a voter choosing Fianna Fáil, the senior minister, Martin Cullen, last night dismissed the criticism out of hand. He pointed out that the system had already been used by 400,000 voters without complaint and he had “absolute confidence” in its reliability. He accused Fine Gael environmental spokesman Bernard Allen and his Labour counterpart Eamon Gilmore of engaging in deliberate “politicking” on the issue.

However, during a second day of political controversy over the system, the Department of the Environment conceded that it was still conducting tests on some aspects of the software and was seeking legal advice as regards the constitutional position of introducing regulation to give effect to the new voting system.

Both Labour and Fine Gael say that they have received legal advice that amending the current electoral legislation by ministerial order or regulation, rather than by primary legislation, might leave the Government exposed to a constitutional challenge, analogous to what transpired in the recent Carrickmines and Aliens Order cases.

In relation to the reliability of the system, Mr Allen said the 41 questions submitted by technology experts still remained unanswered by the minister. “They should withdraw it in the public interest and refer it to an independent electoral commission that would have time to examine all the reservations that have been raised.”

Mr Gilmore said the admission by Mr Gallagher yesterday that testing on software had not been completed signalled that the Government was “heading into real trouble”.

“The minister has barged ahead with it in a reckless and arrogant fashion. I think the prudent thing would be to withdraw it until its reliability is guaranteed.”