Minister makes staunch defence of computer system

The Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, has rejected the Opposition's recently-launched campaign against electronic voting.

"I want to be absolutely clear. This is not a Martin Cullen, Government or Fianna Fáil sort of thing. This is what was decided collectively by the political will.

"Sadly since then it has become politicised. People can make their own judgments on why this has happened," he said yesterday.

However, the Minister said "not one political party, not one politician" questioned the veracity of the results offered from the seven constituencies that used the system during the 2002 general election and the Nice Treaty.

"It wasn't done. So why suddenly at the death is this happening? I think that that is a fair question for me to pose, particularly since we have had so much independent analysis."

Election staff have been given several rounds of training to use electronic voting machines and more training will be offered before the June elections.

The leader of the Labour Party, Mr Rabbitte, continued his assault on electronic voting yesterday, insisting that the Government is introducing the system "against the wishes of the Opposition".

Meanwhile, Irish Citizens for Trustworthy Evoting (ICTE), a lobby group that campaigned against the system before an Oireachtas inquiry, rejected the Minister's assurances. "The Minister has dismissed opposition to the system as 'politicking'. In fact, these concerns have been raised by independent experts with no political agenda. Rebecca Mercuri, the world's leading expert on electronic voting, first raised these concerns 14 years ago.

"A paper record of voters' preferences should be printed, and kept for later inspection in the case of challenges, though the Minister has dismissed this as impractical. Minister Cullen set out to paint a picture of a system which was above reproach and unquestionably accurate. He dismissed the serious reservations of the international computer science community, who are calling for the introduction of a voter verified audit trail," said ICTE's spokesperson, Ms Margaret McGaley.

Each voter will be given an information leaflet explaining the new system in June, along with a ticket stub that will give him or her access to the NEDAP/Powervote machine.

Former Fine Gael TD, Ms Madeline Taylor-Quinn, who is contesting the North-West European Parliament constituency, said the system "must be suspended immediately".