Election 2018 – LMP: Election IT system in hands of small circle

The opposition LMP party has questioned the integrity of the computer system and administrative apparatus responsible for the handling of Hungary’s election data, insisting the entire system was compromised by “serious security holes”.

After assessing the network of institutions, firms and the technical background for administering the April 8 general election with the help of IT experts, data analysts and lawyers, Bernadett Szél, LMP’s co-leader, and Márta Demeter, a party lawmaker, on Monday told journalists there were “shocking interconnections” between people operating the election IT system and a narrow circle of overseers which left the entire set-up open to manipulation.

Demeter insisted the election’s administration network showed signs of being set up “according to the logic of organised crime”.

The National Election Office (NVI) and the interior ministry are investigating a halt to the operation of the election system, she said, adding that no satisfactory answers to their many questions had been forthcoming.

Demeter said “key figure” Krisztina Kertész Demény, a “side-kick” of Sándor Pintér, the interior minister, had held former senior management positions at Central Data Processing, a company operating under the interior ministry, as well as at the Registry and Election Office and its successor, where she had a role in a public procurement tender involving Idom 2000 Consulent, founded by three lawyers connected to the minister.