Asian Election Stakeholder Forum III (AESF III) August 22 – 26, 2016 Bali, Indonesia "Transparency & integrity for Quality Elections" General Election Commission Republic of Indonesia and General Election Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL)

1. Women for Social Progress
AESF III FORUM – BALI, INDONESIA
22-26th of AUGUST 2016

2. Introduction to Mongolia
 Mongolia lies in the heart of Central Asia
 19th largest country in the world with 1,564,116 square
kilometres
 Population of over 3 million

3. Election background
 Mongolia recently held its 7th democratic Parliamentary election
on the 29th of July 2016.
 The election resulted a landslide victory for the Mongolian
People’s Party (MPP) securing 65 seats in the 76 seat Parliament.
 The election was held by the Automatic election system (AES),
which was introduced from the Parliamentary elections of 2012.
(4 elections)
 Due to the election of 2008 political parties enacted new laws in
2011 on parliamentary elections and introduced an automatic
election system which was progressive reform for the country’s
electoral system.
 The AES was introduced to prevented all subjective factors that
could possibly cause illegal interference with the process of the
elections

4. About the AES
 The following two processes have been atomized:
1. Voter registration system – with voter identification
through biometric data
2. Voting and results – ballot casting, vote counting,
vote tabulation and election reporting.

5. AES – Voter registration
1. The voter registration is conducted by the State
registration Office through the biometric system
since the 2012 elections.
2. The voter registration systems allows development of
voter’s name list, changes to the registration and
finalization of voter’s name list.
3. The process of voter’ checking and confirming their
registration can be checked online within the 4
months before the elections.

6. AES – Voter registration system
The Voter registration system core is
the program, which allows:
 Registering voters
 Printing of registration sheet
 Develop election turnout
results
 Show voter registration
details

7. AES – Voter registration system
 The voter registration system consists of:
1. Portable laptop computer with secure briefcase – carry all
voter registration names registered to the polling station, each
polling station is given 1-2 laptops in ratio to the voter’s registered
2. Fingerprint scanners – Voter’s fingerprints are scanned in order
to show their details of their registration and all the information is
shown on a screen open to the public
3. Voter registration list printers – If the voter’s personal details
are correct and has no errors, the voter registration slip is printed
out 2 copies.

8. AES – Voting and counting
 The Voting and Counting system consists of:
1. Vote counting scanner– reads ballot papers, recognize ballot
papers, save ballot image, vote count, result print and send
election results.
2. Ballot box – contain all ballots scanned by the scanner and
prevent from outside peaks.

9. AES – Voting and counting
 The Voting and Counting system consists of:
4. Additional equipments – magnet keys, CF card, modems and
batteries ,
5. Other equipments– Programmer of magnet key and CF card,
high speed scanner, magnet key and CF card readers.

10. AES – Reults
“Live” broadcasting of election result
 The election results were broadcasted “live” through television
channels as soon as the election closed and results were sent to the
General Election Commission – which increased the trust from the
stakeholders on the election results . (the counting in some cases
took 72 hours which raised suspicion and distrust)
 The final result is also made available to the public by posting on the
websites of the GEC

11. Why use AES?
 Easy and simple to use
 In case of a malfunction with the scanning
machine, able to continue the election process by
traditional manual collection to the ballot box
 Can be monitored more, limit outside
interference
 In case of a conflict with the vote counting,
manual counts can be conducted to check the
results

12. Problems presented
1. Distrust in the system due to:
 AES is based on programming therefore can not be
monitored by observers which leads to low
transparency
 With it not being transparent, and need professional
expert for its correct maintenance, it raised insecurity
with the public of its safety, especially when it comes to
program hacking
 Valid or invalid ballot papers and votes cause confusion
with the final results
 The idea of the system being developed and purchased
by a foreign organization can seem as if the election
has a possible foreign influence

13. Problems presented
2. The distrust in the automatic system continued
until the results of the 2016 Parliamentary
elections due to:
 GEC’s lack if response to show that there are no
outside influence or hacking of any sort
 The media sector tend to concentrate more on the
allegations , view and opinions of the distrusted
rather than informing of the advanced and correct
functionality of the machines.

14. Gains from the system
1. The double registration of the voters where erased
which means no issues of fake address, voter registered
in more than one address or double voting
2. Acceptance of the election result by stakeholders
3. Major decrease in the conflict and violation of the
voting, counting and tabulations stages of the election
process
4. Simplified the counting and tabulation process of the
elections and reduced its time which also influences
the increase of trust in the system.
5. No more issue and effort to confuse the election results
by attempting to change the results
6. A possibility to copy the ballot paper is erased as the
security of the paper is increased.

15. How are risks managed for the AES?
New system, especially when it is based on information
technology is followed by certain risks regarding
technology failure and security.
Therefore the GEC has developed policies to maintain the
sustainable operation of the system and manage in
case of any issues.
The back-up plan is managed by the
 “Policy on ensuring the safe operation of the AES”
 Back-up plan to ensure sustainable information process
 Policy on monitoring whether the the legal laws and
legislation are being followed when operating the

16. Efficiency, integrity and transparency
Conducting the elections by the AES has increased
efficiency of the election as it reduced the violations,
interferences and issues regarding voter registration
and counting of elections.
The system of voter’s identification approved by their
fingerprints, ballot paper issued by their approved
identity and ballot papers scanned and counted
automatically has ensured the integrity of the election.
The public showing of the voter’s identity and the
systematic process of voting as well as the automatic
results counting and sending to the GEC, more
importantly, broadcasting the results live, without any
waiting ensured the transparency of the election
process.

17. Thank you for your attention