The Special Telecommunications Service (STS) firmly rejects all public accusations regarding possible irregularities in the IT&C systems used during election.

'For the correct information of the public, the STS Press Office clarifies that the applications and IT systems were developed in accordance with the specifications of the Permanent Electoral Authority (AEP), verified and tested by the AEP, the coordinator of election organisation, and met all legislative, technical and operational requirements,' reads an STS press release sent to AGERPRES on Wednesday.

The IT systems had 100% availability throughout the electoral process and during operations at the closing of polling stations.

The information circulated about a 30-minute system outage is incorrect, the source adds.

'All Romanian citizens who voted either abroad or in the country are registered in the same database. If a [personal numerical code] CNP is validated in two polling stations, whether domestic or abroad, a real-time fraud alert is sent to the Ministry of Internal Affairs,' STS further explains.

According to the STS, this mechanism is fully automated and cannot be locally disabled by operators or any other persons in the polling station.

'The alerting/notification system was not changed for this election compared to the 2020, 2021 and 2024 elections. It complies with legislation and was implemented according to the operational requirements provided by the AEP for the development of applications,' the institution points out.

STS has no role in validating votes or in electoral decision-making. It does not alter and cannot alter election results, offering only secure technical support.

In Romania, voting is not electronic. Voters express their choice by stamping paper ballots. Voting results are recorded in each polling station on paper protocols, signed and assumed by all members of the polling station, STS representatives explain.

Additionally, operators in polling stations - under the supervision of electoral bureaus and in the presence of all observers - input the data from the protocols into the IT system. The process is video recorded. Moreover, the signed protocol is photographed, and the image is published on the website https://prezenta.roaep.ro.

The accuracy of the data entered and published is verified at the level of the County Electoral Bureau, ensuring data integrity. The STS system collects data exactly as transmitted from polling stations and does not alter its content.

The IT system automatically aggregates the data entered by polling station staff and displays it in real-time on https://prezenta.roaep.ro.

'Data modification is impossible due to systems that ensure traceability and auditability of every action through blockchain technology, consisting of nine national nodes, none operated by STS, and integrated with the EBSI [European Blockchain Services Infrastructure], made up of 40 distributed nodes across Europe,' the quoted source also shows.

Using blockchain mechanisms eliminates the possibility of data tampering and ensures transaction accuracy across all mentioned nodes.

'The voter verification application (ADV) works by automatically scanning the MRZ zone of the ID card or passport. The application does not take photos or store data from identity documents,' STS emphasises.

Even in offline mode (lack of internet connection), tablets collect data, and once the connection is restored, data is uploaded, while technical mechanisms detect possible multiple voting and trigger alerts to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

'We mention that in the current electoral process, second round, approximately 12,000 CNPs were verified offline, both domestically and abroad, from the total. We also specify that even in isolated cases where power outages occurred, all tablets remained accessible, and the lowest battery level recorded at the end of operations was 80%,' the press release also reads. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Daniel Alexandru Florea; EN - writing by: Adina Panaitescu)