Interior minister Carmen Dan has voiced against the system monitoring multiple voting and turnout in elections being still operated by the Special Telecommunication Service (STS- the Romanian institution that coordinates the activities in the field of special secure communications). Minister Dan made the statement on Tuesday, at the end of the hearings within the inquiry committee probing into alleged frauds at the EP elections on May 26, yet suggesting that the system has not registered any multiple voting cases.
Carmen Dan said that the soft should be handled by a private company, but also by the Permanent Electoral Authority (AEP).
“Yes, my opinion is that this system should not be under the authority and exclusive responsibility of a special intelligence service, if we want a transparent electoral process, as long as we have a transparent electoral body such as AEP, which could take over these prerogatives. I think, suspicions over potential interference in the electoral process might be removed in this way,” the Romanian minister pointed out.
STS is monitoring multiple voting and turnout in elections, and it also operates the tablets in the polling stations. During the hearings in the inquiry committee, minister Dan stated the tablets had been poorly operated and that some ID papers had been repeatedly registered through the system.
Minister Dan refused to resign after EP elections over irregularities during the voting procedure in Diaspora, arguing the ministry she is running has no authority over the voting abroad, but only over the voting in Romania. Dan said though that the ministry has detected syncopes in the voting process in Romania, such as the slow way the tablets were working or the way they wrongly detected alleged multiple votes. However, Carmen Dan assured that no such cases had been confirmed, following the police checks.