Ireland scraps plan for e-voting in June elections

The Irish government has scrapped plans to use electronic voting for European parliamentary and local elections in June because its reliability has not yet been proven, Environment Minister Martin Cullen said Friday.

The move follows a report from an independent Electronic Voting Commission set up to examine the secrecy and accuracy of the electronic voting system involved.

Cullen said traditional paper ballots would be used for the June 11 vote because the commission was "unable to provide sufficient positive assurance" in the time available.

The decision is a major embarrassment to Cullen who strongly backed a move to e-voting as a symbol of Ireland's hi-tech economy.

He argued it would improve the efficiency, speed, accuracy and user friendliness of Ireland's complex proportional representation system of ballots.

Bernard Allen, environment spokesman for the main Fine Gael opposition party called for Cullen's resignation.

"Anything between 40 million and 50 million euros of taxpayers' money has been committed to machines which will not be used," Allen said.

"But even more serious is the fact that this government was trying to foist an unreliable and insecure voting system onto the electorate," Allen added.