This Friday, parliament approved a PSD project to test remote electronic voting for residents abroad, with several parties warning of the need to ensure the reliability of such modalities.
The PSD diploma – which, in addition to proposing the pilot project, also enshrines the possibility of postal voting, in presidential and European elections, for voters living abroad – was widely approved with the favorable votes of the PSD and Chega, abstentions from PS, IL, PAN and Livre, and votes against from PCP and BE. The diploma will now go to the Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Affairs, Rights, Freedoms and Guarantees.
In the debate leading up to this vote, Social Democratic deputy Hugo Carneiro stressed that the pilot project in question is only “a non-binding large-scale test”. “It’s an opportunity for us to learn without weakening the electoral system”defended.
Despite this, PS deputy Pedro Delgado Alves defended that remote electronic voting deserves “the utmost caution”, recalling that in France “there were problems in two constituencies” regarding the results of the parliamentary elections precisely because of the use of this modality type . “With regard to a system that has flaws, we must ensure that what we are introducing to improve it does not introduce even more serious and risky flaws at a time when many far-right populists are using the electoral system to endanger democracy and its democracy. bring fundamentalswarned.
For Chega, Representative Diogo Pacheco Amorim believed that, with regard to electronic voting, it is necessary to ensure that the system is “fully auditable” in order to be reliable. “Nothing is more corrosive to a democracy than suspicions that may arise about the reliability and confidentiality of its electoral system”warned.
IL delegate Patrícia Gilvaz noted that the pilot project will make this possible “to understand whether it will be freedom of choice in voting mobility and maximum flexibility to increase the much greater participation of Portuguese communities in the electoral process”.
In addition to this PSD bill, a PS draft resolution was also approved during this voting period, recommending that the government experiment with mobile electronic voting in constituencies. This project was approved with favorable votes from PS, IL and Livre, against from PCP and abstention from PSD, Chega, Bloco de Esquerda and PAN.
Presenting this motion for a resolution, PS deputy Paulo Pisco believed that the eventual introduction of this modality in the communities “would make a relevant contribution to promoting the modernization of the electoral system and reducing abstinence”. would allow “For a voter registered in Paris to vote in Luxembourg or Geneva, for example, the same applies to the constituency outside Europe”illustrated.
PSD deputy Hugo Carneiro, however, believed that the PS project “it is not intended to solve any problem and relieves the deputies who endorse it of their right of initiative in matters where parliament has legislative power”.
The PCP, speaking through deputy Alma Rivera, also believed that the PS proposal only aims to make the party “save face”, accusing the socialists of “walking through the Portuguese communities making promises about electronic votes they know they cannot fulfill”. “. “The recommendation of the PS is not understood for the simple reason that no mobility vote is provided for in the law for emigrants. In Fornos de Algodres”ironed.
In turn, BE delegate Isabel Pires warned that the personal electronic voting experience in the United States “has led to much criticism and serious problems”. “It is a modality that carries risks that, in our view, have not yet been properly calculated or secured. We are not against studying this form, but we can only warn against the risks that other countries have already shown to to exist.” “warned.
Source: DN
