Opposition attacks Government over system problems

THE latest problems with the electronic voting system form “another nail in the coffin of the Government’s claim to competence, good judgment and ministerial capability”, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said yesterday.

Discussing the report of the Commission on Electronic Voting in the Dáil, Mr Kenny said the Government had attempted “to foist a dud e-voting system on the people” despite the fact it could have “subverted their democratic decision”.

He also recalled how two years ago the Taoiseach had chided opposition TDs for not trusting the system.

Labour leader Pat Rabbitte declared e-voting “a shocking waste of taxpayers’ money”. Referring to the commission’s report, he said errors in the election management software meant that, in a tied vote, the system eliminated the wrong candidate.

“[The report] further stated that the software is not of sufficient quality to enable its use to be confidently recommended,” he said.

But Mr Ahern dismissed much of the opposition criticism, saying the report had been mostly positive.

Pointing to the commission’s finding that the e-voting machines were robust, he said: “I am particularly pleased with the commission’s overall validation of the €46 million investment in the voting machines.”

He conceded there were problems with the software, but said it had cost less than €500,000 and reminded deputies of the commission’s finding that it could be replaced “at a reasonable relative cost”.

Mr Kenny accepted the machines were of sound structure, but said the software problems could not be dismissed so easily.

He then cited a series of findings from the report. These included the fact that e-voting did not offer the same levels of transparency in the counting of votes as the paper-based ballot.

Furthermore, the potential for an inaccuracy in the counting of votes to go unnoticed was greater under an electronic system than the paper system, he said.

The report said a person had no way of verifying that what appeared on the display screen when he or she voted was what was recorded by the machine.

“Whether or not the Government intends to introduce an electronic voting system, the peann luaidhe will rule Ireland on the next occasion,” Mr Kenny said. “The Taoiseach and the Government will be removed, not by just 1,000 strokes, but by more than one million.”

The report did say the paper-based system was “moderately superior” overall to the e-voting system in terms of accuracy and secrecy, the Taoiseach admitted.

But the commission had said that, if its recommendations were implemented, the e-voting system “has the potential to deliver greater accuracy than the paper system and can provide similarly high levels of secrecy”.