Fears of transparency in the count of votes | …

Smartmatic, the company that will be responsible for electronically transmitting the results of each of the tables to the data center of Correo Argentino, raises suspicion about its performance during elections in Venezuela, among other countries, and because the state of the computers that will be used, nor what will be the software, because it is a "closed system" and it has not been validated by any university in Argentina nor any academic means guaranteeing security and transparency. The only one who has access to it is the national government.

This year will be used for the first time a system of electronic transmission of results and just over two months for the primary elections are still questions about its operation.

After the failure of the ruling party in its attempt to approve electronic voting – declared by the entire technical community for its lack of transparency and its failings in the system – the government is putting in the transmission of the results of each painting and each school via an electronic medium ", explained to PáginaI12 one of the representatives of the party justicialist and endowed with a long experience in the control of the elections.

"This is the first time that this will take place in Argentina, at least for a national election, and it's an adventure because we have no practice in this area and this has not happened. never been implemented, "he added.

Control is a process that is divided into five steps: voting, controlling the table, generating documents, processing results and communicating them. An electoral system must guarantee three conditions: the secrecy of the vote, the integrity of the vote and the transparency of the vote. PJ's lawyer explained that "a clbadroom will be used in each of the schools selected by Correo Argentino for this modality.There will be a scanner before which the report of the vote will be presented and then it will be transmitted electronically to a mail processing center where all information will be concentrated ". "This examination certificate will serve as a basis for the interim review that will be announced by mail on election night, which will be implemented both in the August 11 STEP and in the general elections of the 27th. October, "he said.

In addition, he indicated that for this they would use "the same computers as those used for the Connect Equality program". The concern, he explained, is due to the fact that "we do not know the status of these machines, we do not know which software will be used because it is a problem." closed system, they still do not inform us of the tests and they wish to delay the demonstration of the tests for July, when it is too late. "" This software has not been validated by any Argentine university nor by any academic means allowing to determine if it is good and that this whole situation generates doubts, "he added.

The company responsible for the electronic transmission of the results and the provisional examination will be Smartmatic SA, a Venezuelan company that has been implicated for its actions in the framework of other electoral processes such as the republican internal elections of 2016 in the United States, the 2008 Philippine general elections and the electoral processes in Venezuela since 2004.

"This is not a company that has the right qualifications, I deserve a hundred percent distrust, in fact it was the last of the technical evaluation among the bidders, but it's the one that made the bid more economical and that's why the recruitment was concluded, "said Beatriz Busaniche, president of Fundación Vía Libre, a non-profit civil organization. benefit dedicated to the defense of fundamental rights in environments mediated by information and communication technologies. He even recalled that there are "Smartmatic officials who have been incorporated into Interpol's lists after manipulating the Philippines elections". "Unfortunately, there is a cross-cutting policy of outsourcing temporary control to the private sector, a policy related to the hiring of the National Directorate of Elections and Argentine Mail, which are historically These are our questions and our position is that this task should be entrusted to the State, "he added.

In any case, the specialist asked "to bring tranquility to citizenship" and stressed that "the electoral system has not been radically altered". "What is going to be done is not an implementation of electronic voting but a reference to telegrams, which have always been done electronically.No telegram is on paper because telegraphy does not make it possible. is that a remote transmission: all telegrams are transmitted electronically.The only difference is that now it will be transmitted from the school as it had been previously from the nearest Argentine post office. prosecutors will see the act of transmission of the telegram, "he said.

For his part, the Attorney General of the PJ stated that he did not know the company Smartmatic SA "but what we get from his performance outside of Argentina raises doubts as to its effectiveness and to its impartiality ".

Faced with these concerns, the justicialist party asked the National Electoral Chamber to intervene in the establishment of electoral control systems and, in particular, the system of electronic transmission of results. The party representative explained that the request was to "be able to use quota telegrams to preserve the respect of the will of the citizens during the last control". "We need the quota system to be maintained Although, ideally, the government's call for tenders for data transmission is no longer used because we did not perform any system testing, we do not know it and from there, the results of the provisional control will be transmitted the evening of the elections. ", he declared while declaring:" the current context in which we manage the government makes us doubt the putting that could be done for the next elections. "

"Let us be aware of these problems, we will inform you of the possible difficulties of the system and we will work to ensure that the control system meets all the requirements so that the control by the citizens is complete, because the only valid electoral system is the one that can be controlled by the entire population, "said the national PJ's lawyer and called on citizens to actively participate in this process. "The Argentinian system is excellent and has never doubted the legitimacy of the authorities from the 1983 elections to date," he added.

In the same vein, Busaniche launched a "call to the responsibility of the citizens". "To be well informed, do not fall into disinformation campaigns there are many this year and there will be many more.It will be a very difficult year in terms of misinformation campaign, false news and unfounded fears, "he said. "The electoral system is a system that only works if all parties are suspicious of each other.The basis is mistrust and that is why there is cross-checking," he concluded. .