WASHINGTON, CMC – The Organization of American States (OAS) Electoral Mission (OEM) says that on the night of the elections in St. Lucia on December 1, the transmission process did not work precisely as anticipated, with results “bypassing the verification stage in some instances”.
The OEM was among regional and international groups that monitored the elections, which resulted in the ruling St. Lucia Labour Party (SLP) of Prime Minister Phillip J Pierre winning 14 of the 17 seats, with two seats going to “independents” who had previously been part of Pierre’s first administration.
The others were won by the leader of the main opposition United Workers Party (UWP), Allen Chastanet.
In its report, the OEM said that St. Lucia has transitioned to an electronic election results transmission process whereby, following the conclusion of the manual count, preliminary election results are transmitted and recorded in the Election Tabulation and Publication System (ETPS).
It said that the current electronic results system is configured so that after a Presiding Officer uploads a polling station’s results, the Returning Officer (RO) verifies and approves the data upon receiving the physical Statement of Poll (SOP).
“The Mission noted that the system’s design prevents the RO from approving a verified SOP until all SOPs for that entire constituency have been received and are ready for approval. This can create a significant processing delay, which negates the speed advantage of digital reporting and potentially delays the timely release of results to the general public.”
It said that on election night, the transmission process “did not work precisely as anticipated, with results being uploaded to both the ROs and to a public results website, thus bypassing the verification stage in some instances.
But the OEM noted that “this did not appear to be an issue of undue concern for the electoral authorities.
As a result, the OEM is recommending revising the application design to allow the RO to approve and publish each SOP independently as soon as its physical copy has been verified, adding, “This will eliminate potential bottlenecks and ensure the results are published in a timely fashion.”
It also calls for enhancing the system so that it works both online and offline, automatically syncing data to the central database when a connection is available.
“This hybrid approach ensures the process,” the OEM said, adding that there should also be efforts to improve software-freezing procedures to prevent tampering or modification of the software and the database, thereby preserving their integrity and availability.
The OEM is also recommending enhanced training for all poll workers before each election to ensure greater familiarity with the results transmission web application and the required steps in the confirmation and verification process.
It also wants an enhanced transparency through Digital SOP publication, noting that “the current ETPS does not include the scanning, digital capture, and upload of the SOPs for public viewing.
“The digital publication of SOPs can greatly improve public trust by allowing citizens to view and download official SOPs from a secure, central location as soon as they are verified. The Mission therefore recommends integrating the following capabilities into the ETPS to facilitate the secure and timely publication of SOP images.”
The OEM said that equipping each RO’s receiving location with high-speed scanners would immediately capture digital images of the physical SOPs upon their arrival.
“Developing a dedicated software module for the indexing, classification, and secure uploading of SOP images to a central database. This ensures efficient data management,” the OEM said, recommending that “before uploading the SOPs, utilize a secure algorithm to generate a digital signature (hash) for each SOP image. This digital signature must be included with the SOP record to prove its integrity and detect any unauthorized tampering.
“Immediately encrypting all SOP images upon scanning and securing the receiving laptops with full-disk encryption and multi-factor authentication (MFA) to protect sensitive data at the local level.”
It is recommended that a user-friendly online interface be created that allows voters to easily search for and download SOPs by constituency or polling location.
Implementing an online dashboard to show the public the live status of the SOP scanning, verification, and uploading processes nationwide. This will help citizens track the progress of results in real time,” the OEM added.
and then  Electoral Mission (OEM) says that on the night of the elections in St. Lucia on December 1, the transmission process){kind=link}