THE LATEST INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS VOTING AS A TOOL OF ELECTRONIC DEMOCRACY

Abstract

Introduction. The article notes that the current high level of scientific and technical progress results in the broad informatization of society, which causes significant sociocultural changes in the world, stimulates the penetration of information and communication technologies into broad spheres of social relations. Under these conditions, the issue of the introduction and development of electronic democracy in Ukraine and the use of innovative voting technologies in the formation of representative bodies of state power and local self-government are actualised in the theoretical and praxeological aspects.

Summary of the main results of the study. The study analyses the diverse experience of implementing the latest information and communication systems for citizen voting in developed democratic countries. Attention is focussed on the use of such technologies by these countries as mechanical and electronic voting machines, punched cards for EVM, composter cards, optical scanning of ballots, electronic voting via the Internet, by phone through sending SMS messages, through the interactive television system (ITB), etc.

Conclusion. After examining the foreign experience of using information and communication systems for voting in the formation of representative bodies of public power, it is concluded that today in Ukraine, unfortunately, there are still no appropriate conditions for the implementation of the voting system via the Internet. It is advisable to do this when the appropriate quality hardware and software for electronic voting is developed in our country, there will be a sufficient prevalence of the Internet and the ability to use its services by a wide mass of the population, voters will have sufficient confidence in this form of voting. Instead, now we should talk about the use of foreign experience and the introduction in Ukraine of other innovative technologies, technical and software tools for organising voting and holding elections in our country, which will meet the provisions of Part 1 of Art. 18 of the Electoral Code of Ukraine.