Preparation for the Saeima elections is entering a new phase: authorities expect to implement several IT solutions that will simplify voting and the work of the commissions.
The Chairman of the Central Election Commission, Maris Zviedris, stated that the prospects for using information systems in elections have significantly improved. In particular, this concerns the electronic voter register, which will allow voting not at the place of registration, but at any polling station.
"We have moved away from the situation of having no electronic voter register," Zviedris noted during the broadcast of the program "Morning Panorama."
At the same time, he emphasized that work on the systems is not yet complete, so it is too early to talk about full security. The CEC is preparing for various scenarios for conducting the elections.
In addition to the register, it is planned to implement other digital tools — electronic logs of the voting process and protocols for counting. They will be invisible to voters but should simplify the work of the commissions and speed up data processing.
Despite the digitalization, the votes will still be counted manually. Preliminary results are expected to be announced the next day. The ballot scanning system will not be used this time, although it is not being completely abandoned.
The government has decided to transfer the development of election IT systems to state and partially state-owned companies — Latvijas mobilais telefons, Tet, and Latvijas valsts meži. The contract with the previous developer was terminated earlier.
The Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development explains that these companies were chosen due to their experience in implementing large IT projects and the availability of specialists with the necessary security certifications — a critically important factor for electoral systems.
It is expected that LMT will work on refining the platform, Tet will conduct its audit and adapt the modules, and LVM will develop the electronic voter register.
The transition to digital tools is part of a broader modernization of the elections, but this year the key task remains their reliability.
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