Sunday elections to be “the most transparent elections in Romania’s history”

The parliamentary elections Romania holds on Sunday, December 11, will be “the most transparent elections ever organized in Romania,” according to Marcel Opris, the head of the Special Telecommunications Service (STS). STS is a a state structure that is in charge with the secure data transfer for state authorities. At the elections, STS provides the system for collecting the results from all the voting stations in Romania and abroad. “Being completely computerised, any action or inaction of a participant in this democratic exercise will leave a trace. Any computer operation will be registered and kept according to the law,” Opris said in a press conference, reports local Mediafax. For example, even if a STS operator makes an operation that alters the fairness of the vote, the traces of his actions will remain in the system, being at the disposal of justice, he added. A novelty in these elections is that the activity in the polling stations will be video and audio recorded after 21:00, the hour when the polling stations will shut down. The recording will continue until all station members leave the place. The recording will be done with tablets. Other novelties are the electronic minutes with provisional status, and on-demand special and secure connections for the political parties. The electoral campaign for the parliamentary elections started on November 11, and will end this Saturday. The campaign came with some new rules, such as the one according to which the candidates are no longer allowed to give away money or goods to potential voters to convince them to give their votes to a certain list of candidates, or to a certain candidate. Interior minister Dragos Tudorache announced on Thursday that 35 criminal cases were opened during this electoral campaign, of which 21 for bribing the voters, and 164 people were fined, reports local News.ro. “What I have noticed during this electoral process was that the legal measures and standards have generally been respected. We've had fewer incidents and complaints than during other campaign,” the minister said. A total of 308 complaints were made between November 11 and December 8, of which 26 were not confirmed, 29 were submitted to the Permanent Electoral Authority to be solved, and one was sent to the County Election Office. Free train rides for Romanian students who want to vote in parliamentary elections