Security Issues
The three basic security requirements that, depending on the stability of the election environment, observer logistics planners and managers may need to consider include:
- physical security of observer personnel;
- security of information--on paper, on computers, or transmitted over telecommunications networks;
- security of residential and office premises occupied by observers.
Security planning must follow an assessment of perceived risks in the particular country or regional environment. Where there are perceived risks to personal or premises security, security plans, including emergency exit and evacuation plans, should be developed in conjunction with local or, if present, international security forces. Expert security advice should be heeded even if it means scaling down or modifying proposed observation. In no circumstances should independent election observers provide their own security force or carry weapons themselves. If such fears for safety are held, the affected areas of observation should be abandoned.
Information Security
In all situations, security plans should include general information security principles. While observation is a transparent exercise, leaking of preliminary observation data, or data not yet validated, particularly during the course of an election, may unwittingly affect election processes or the perceived legitimacy of election outcomes. Document and file management systems, in conjunction with information release authorisation plans and telecommunications logs, are necessary. For data held on computers, security procedures including regular information and system back-ups, up-to-date anti-virus controls, password protection, software application testing, and data and software change management controls should be applied.
(For further discussion of general voting operations security issues see
Security, 'pod03d', and
Transportation Security.)
