Interior ministry under fire over signature verification procedure

The Interior Ministry is said to have published information making it possible for presidential candidates to cheat the ministry’s verification procedure of their list of supporters. The randomized system for controlling the signature sheets was created by Hewlett Packard, which won in a public tender. Czech Radio said on Thursday that by placing the full text of the contract between the ministry and Hewlett Packard on the internet, including the formula used to randomly select signature sheets to be checked, the Interior Ministry allowed candidates to calculate exactly which sheets would be picked, and prepare those sheets more carefully. The ministry defended itself saying that it is obliged by law to place the full text of the contract for any public tender online, and that signature sheets were given internal numbers at the ministry, which prevented any possible fraud in this respect. Three candidates who submitted petitions with more than the necessary 50 thousand signatures were originally disqualified for having too many unverifiable signatures, though Jana Bobšíková was later registered as an official candidate.

Author: Masha Volynsky