Chairman of the Supreme Board of Elections Ahmet Yener managed to draw the attention of all of Turkey with the statement he made today. Yener said that Turkey should switch to electronic elections and that work on the issue will begin after the local elections scheduled for March 31, 2024.
Türkiye is switching to electronic election system!
With the rapid progress of technology, we see that there are changes in many sectors. One of them is the selection process. According to the statement made today, after the upcoming local elections, Turkey will also step into digital democracy and switch to the electronic election system. So what is this electronic selection that we know so little about? How to vote? Is it safe? Here are the answers to all your questions…
Electronic election, unlike traditional voting methods, is a voting method that is carried out through computers, the internet and other electronic devices. It is also a system that facilitates and modernizes the voting process of voters.
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In traditional voting methods, citizens go to a certain center on the election day and vote physically, while this process is transferred to the digital environment in electronic elections. In other words, voters will inform their preferences electronically by accessing a platform (probably via e-Government) where they can vote online.
Electronic selection system brings many advantages. First of all, it offers the opportunity to vote without having to wait in long queues to go to physical polling stations. This reduces the voting process, which technically takes up to 2 hours in crowded evening hours, to just a few minutes.
This saves voters time and energy. In addition, it is possible to obtain fast and reliable results with electronic selection. Errors and delays in the manual vote counting and results announcement process are directly minimized.
Of course, Türkiye will not be the first country to step into this digital process. Especially countries that are highly integrated with technology are already actively using electronic electoral systems. Among these, we can count mainly Estonia, Norway, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Belgium.
However, let’s open a parenthesis and say that electronic selection has some disadvantages. Although it is extremely safe and fast on paper, the most important concern for the public in all countries is security.
Because it is controversial that electronic election systems may be vulnerable to cyber attacks and whether security measures are sufficient. In addition, there may be disruptions in the voting process due to technical problems or system errors. This situation may damage the reliability of the election results.
For example, I logged into the system with my credentials or e-Government information, but as soon as I pressed the save my choice button during voting, the system crashed and I could not log in again. Similar questions have already begun to arise.
But let’s not forget that we have a long process ahead of us. Each question will also be answered in time. What do you think about this subject? Don’t forget to share your views with us in the comments!