Technology

Following the conclusion of the election process in Kosovo, concerns about the security and reliability of the electronic results reporting system have raised numerous controversies. A simple data entry application used by the Central Election Commission (CEC) has been facing serious problems. On election night, the CEC’s IT systems were unavailable for a period of time, directly affecting the publication of preliminary results. This caused delays in the counting process and created uncertainty among political parties and citizens. The company responsible for developing the application has stated that it was only responsible for developing the platform, while state institutions were responsible for its operation and maintenance. This statement has fueled further debate, highlighting the lack of clarity about technical responsibilities. Cybersecurity experts have emphasized that the platform’s supporting infrastructure was not up to the mark to effectively handle and filter traffic. In addition to the technical failure, the application has also faced other unusual problems. Some reports suggest that the data entered did not match the actual results from the polling stations, making the situation even more complicated. The head of the CEC, Kreshnik Radoniqi, who was appointed to this position by President Vjosa Osmani, has stated that security and justice institutions have been invited to investigate the problem. According to him, the CEC is awaiting the final report, which is expected to clarify the cause of the problems and provide recommendations to avoid similar situations in the future. To overcome these challenges, the CEC and the Municipal Election Commissions were forced to process the data manually, a process that, despite the delays, has been assessed as necessary to preserve the integrity of the elections