Skopje, 3 September 2021 (MIA) – The State Election Commission (SEC) received on Friday the first 200 biometric voter identification devices from the German company “Dermalog”. The scanners will be used in the upcoming local elections. In the coming period, these terminals will be used for trainings, while the last shipment is to arrive by October 1, so as to complete the full equipment. “The 200 terminals, i.e. the first shipment from Germany arrived today. They will be used for training in the next month and a half. Electoral boards will be trained to use the scanners. Trainers for the electoral boards will need to be trained first, and therefore these devices will be filled with fictitious data from those present. They will be tried and handled, so that they can be ready on Election Day,” said SEC President Aleksandar Dashtevski. He noted that the next four shipments will include 950 terminals each, with the third shipment including the software for the terminals. In addition, the shipments will be delivered over the next four weeks. Dashtevski added he’s convinced that everything will be realized as agreed because the company is a serious one. According to the SEC President, the country has not done a pilot program in several municipalities to see how it would all work, due to which, he noted, everything has been specified to the smallest detail, so that no problems arise on Election Day. “We tried to specify all details, to do everything properly before the process starts and I’m hopeful it will all go well. I can’t say anything about the Election Day at the moment, it’s the first time and I believe all will go well, but let's wait and see,” Dashtevski pointed out. Asked whether the equipment will contribute to increase trust in the election process with the citizens, he said the decision to use the equipment was precisely for those reasons. “The decision was made by consensus of all political parties, it was passed in the Parliament by consensus. I believe that if everyone thinks that the equipment should be used for voting, and the law in this direction was changed two years ago and is now a legal obligation, we must implement that obligation regardless of the outcome. The decision was made in agreement with all parties because it was believed that the elections are likely to be more transparent and ensure a more democratic process,” Dashtevski said. He noted that in addition to the 4000 terminals, additional equipment has been procured including a thermal scanner, thermal printer, cables, server, batteries, etc. “Data will be encrypted, and we know that encryption is the most expensive operation. In addition to the equipment, we also procured services to complete the process, because our engineers don’t know this equipment. The service will be from the delivery to the end of the trainings, and with the Election Day everything should go in the best order,” said Dashtevski.