EUGENIO MARTINEZ
EL UNIVERSAL

The National Electoral Council (CNE) will not remove fingerprint-reading machines. However, the organizations parties to the United Opposition Alliance will propose to use off-line 10,139 biometrics identification devices.

The proposal will be discussed Monday, when the secretary-generals of political parties and CNE directors meet to assess the conditions of automatic voting.

Over the last couple of days, CNE approved to erase 72 hours before the polls the memory of 27,542 voting machines and a similar number of removable memory that will be used next December 4th, and to make a security copy of the data to ensure challenge processes.

Additionally, CNE refused the possibility of removing fingerprint-reading machines, as they prevent voting twice, according to CNE president Jorge Rodríguez.

However, political parties argue that such software should be removed to ensure vote secrecy.

Doubtful sequence
During the audit of the source code of voting machines conducted last November 23rd, election technicians of opposition Primero Justicia party found vulnerability in the system that could impair vote secrecy.

According to a report forwarded by political parties to CNE, with copy to the Organization of American States (OAS) and the European Union, testing showed that the automatic process allows for replication of sequential voting. Therefore, the order of voting can be known.

The report warns against such fault. "It could endanger vote secrecy only with the following conditions: a) access to removable memory or voting machines; b) access to the password created on October 28th, 2005, and c) access to the voters' roll stored by fingerprint-reading machines."

In case of accepting the off-line use of fingerprint-reading machines, CNE will not be able to get real time information on turnout in each polling station.

Translated by Conchita Delgado