Press Conference for the 2019 Elections

Press Conference for the 2019 Elections

Today, the Ministry of Interior and SingularLogic presented the institutional and technological innovations introduced in order to support the electoral procedure, as well as the collection and transmission of the results for the European Parliament and Local Authority Elections on May 26th and June 2nd, 2019, in a joint Press Conference held at the Zappeion Megaron.

The Ministry of Interior was represented in the Press Conference by the Minister of Interior Alexis Charitsis, the General Secretary Kostas Poulakis and the Interior and Electronic Governance Secretary General Theodoros Economou; SingularLogic was represented by the Executive Vice President Yannis Theodoropoulos, the General Manager Integrated Services Giorgos Apostolakis and the Elections Project Manager, Elias Giannitsios.

In his speech, Mr. Charitsis described the upcoming Elections as a major challenge since, as he pointed out, four elections will take place at the same time for the first time in Greece – European Parliament, Regional, Municipal and Communal Elections.

Our first and foremost concern, as emphasized by the Minister of Interior, is to facilitate the citizens and the people that will handle the elections. For this reason, we have taken a series of steps and introduced targeted innovations, which make the procedure simpler and faster, secure even more the transparency and unimpeachability of the elections, and allow for a quicker and safer forecast of the election results:

Innovations in the procedure

As Mr. Charitsis pointed out, the biggest change is breaking down the electoral procedure in two distinct electoral centers (A & B), in most of the cases; in this way, the electoral procedure will be simpler for the voters and the Judicial Representatives will have fewer requirements, since they will only count the votes from two ballots instead of four.

Facilitation for Judicial Representatives

The Minister of Interior emphasized that after acknowledging the conditions that the Judicial Representatives will have to face, the Ministry of Interior proceeded to the following:

Raising their fee by 30%. Facilitating their transportation by offering free transport, for the first time, by means of maritime companies, for themselves and their cars, and a special discount price for their plane tickets. Possibility to download, before the elections, a template with a special layout (pdf file) listing the candidates, so that they can attach this list on the electoral books, thus reducing their workload.

Digital Innovations

As far as digital innovations are concerned, Mr. Charitsis made a special reference to the following:

The special electronic tablet, to be provided to 12,000 Judicial Representatives in the electoral centers, which will allow a quick and safe forecast of the election result for the European Parliament Elections. The IT System assisting the Courts of First Instance’s work, based on which all post-election tasks will be processed electronically, so that decisions can be made a lot faster. The Minister of Interior assured those present of the appropriate preparations and that all measures have been taken for the smooth execution of the electoral procedure. He also stressed that we will win the major bet for the quadruple elections, thanks to the hard work and large experience of the Ministry’s officials, as well as of the other entities involved in the electoral procedure; finally, he called upon all citizens to vote: “Particularly in these elections, both the European and Local Authority Elections, the stakes are extremely high. For this reason, I call upon the Greek citizens to exercise their right to vote and to form their own future by voting.”

On his part, Mr. Pavlakis mentioned the following: “It has been 8 months since October 2018 when the preparations for the upcoming elections of May 26th and June 2nd, 2019, started at the Ministry. We are doing everything possible so that the citizens who will vote will not be annoyed because of queues or shortages, but also so that the Electoral Commissions with the Judicial Representatives will carry out their task in the best possible way.”

The main speaker on behalf of SingularLogic was Mr. Yannis Theodoropoulos, Executive Vice President, who presented the technological innovations introduced by the Company for the collection and transmission of the results. Specifically, he mentioned the following:

The update of the central system according to the new Election Law and the new administrative division.

The implementation of a new modern Portal, completely redesigned, with extended information and special emphasis on the analysis of the election results.

The new Secure Result Transmission (SRT) System that will include the use of 12,000 tablets with a specialized application and the possibility to cover multiple elections with the results not only for the Political Parties but also for the Candidates.

The on line System recording the marks awarded to the Candidates in the European Parliament Elections to be used by the Regional Units in order to accelerate the completion of the marking procedure for the Candidates in the European Parliament Elections.

The Support System for the Court of First Instance procedures which, in these elections, will be a major tool supporting the electoral procedure in all the Courts of First Instance in Greece. The Subsystem for the creation of templates for the minutes of meeting No 2 to be used by the Judicial Representatives, with the Political Parties and Candidates for each electoral procedure already filled in, thus providing valuable assistance to the Judicial Representatives.

*The link to the presentation by the Minister of Interior: https://youtu.be/D8CBCCtyMjo

*The link to the Press Conference: https://youtu.be/hiXuxdH3ntw