I am asking the Minister for the Environment and Local Government, who is not in the Chamber, to explain why he did not publish a report that has been in his possession since last March. The report claims that the new electronic system is not tamper-proof. I ask him to publish in full the report on electronic voting by the information security company Zerflow. The report has raised concerns about the new electronic system. I was astounded to discover today that this report was submitted to the Minister on 27 March this year, well in advance of the general election and the Nice treaty referendum, for which electronic voting was widely used.
I wish the Minister was here to clarify a number of questions as a matter of urgency. Why was this report not published? Why were these electronic voting systems used in the general election and the referendum? Were the problems identified by Zerflow resolved before the general election?
This report has been wrongfully suppressed by the Government so I am calling on the Minister to publish it now, in full. Members of the House must be able to judge whether or not it is safe to proceed with the electronic voting system, and in order to do so we must obtain the honest account contained in that report. Nothing less than a full explanation as to why the report was suppressed, and its immediate publication, will suffice.
While the report is confidential, I understand it examined the vulnerability of the electronic voting system from a number of perspectives. I have been informed that the lid of the voting machine used in polling stations could be lifted and the ballot paper removed and substituted with a bogus one. The machines are unable to distinguish between genuine ballot paper and bogus ones.
I have also been informed that the machine contained two cartridges, one of which was taken to the main count centre and the other remained in the machines. Keys used to unlock the cartridges were of poor quality and could easily be duplicated. As a result the original cartridge could be removed from the machine.
In view of this report, has the Department of the Environment and Local Government carried out an assessment of the electronic voting system? If so, what were the findings? Has any assessment been carried out of the security of the central computer at the main count centre? If such an assessment was carried out, the Minister should publish that report also.
How could the Minister announce an extension of the electronic voting system to cover all constituencies in the next local and European elections, if a major question mark is hanging over the security of the system? The Minister should provide us with a full report on his findings as well as publishing the Zerflow report in full. The Minister should also appear before the Committee on the Environment and Local Government to answer questions on this issue. The security company involved should also appear before that committee to answer questions on aspects of its report.
I do not have the report because it was suppressed by the Department but I am demanding that it now be published in full. In recent days we have seen that this Government cannot be trusted with anything it does. It lied and deceived the public prior to the general election, and it would do anything to stay in power.