DUSHANBE, February 3, 2011, Asia-Plus — Tajikistan’s Central Commission for Elections and Referenda (CCER) intends to partially introduce an electronic voting system for the next parliamentary elections that will take place in the country in 2015.
“The electronic voting system is planned to be introduced in the capital city, regional administrative centers and large cities of the country — Dushanbe, Khorog, Khujand, Kulob, Qurghon Teppa and Tursunzoda,” Muhibullo Dadajonov, an official with CCER, said.
According to him, the main obstacle on the way of introduction of the electronic voting system in Tajikistan is shortage of finance. “According to the most conservative estimates, more than 22 million U.S. dollars are needed for shifting to the electronic voting system,” Dadajonov said, noting that introduction of this system in large cities alone requires some 5 million U.S. dollars.
“When shifting to this system we must take into account that every polling station must be provided with at least one computer,” said, “Besides, it is necessary to prepare electorate for such voting.”
Within the post-Soviet area, the electronic voting system has been partially introduced in Russia, Kazakhstan, Georgia and Azerbaijan so far, the CCER official said.
Electronic voting (also known as e-voting) is a term encompassing several different types of voting, embracing both electronic means of casting a vote and electronic means of counting votes.
Electronic voting technology can include punched cards, optical scan voting systems and specialized voting kiosks (including self-contained direct-recording electronic voting systems, or DRE). It can also involve transmission of ballots and votes via telephones, private computer networks, or the Internet. Electronic voting technology can speed the counting of ballots and can provide improved accessibility for disabled voters.
