Фото: Reform.by
Turnout in the Coordination Council elections remains low two days after voting effectively began. This was stated at a press conference by Election Commission head Alena Prykhodzka. According to her, 789 people have cast their votes.
“So far, turnout can be described as very low. And this may be linked to various factors. I am not yet ready to assess these factors, because I think these are complex reasons. Nevertheless, for now we can record low turnout, and at this moment 789 people have voted. These are specifically the votes that have already been recorded and cast for particular lists,” she said.
Prykhodzka assured that the voting platform is functioning. Since its effective launch following DDOS attacks, it had been unavailable for only 25 minutes.
According to her, the Election Commission received one complaint as well as two inquiries.
“This is a complaint regarding the actions of the leader of Yuras Ziankovich’s list and a fact he recorded, namely that he allegedly managed to vote using a passport scan. This case and this complaint will be reviewed today at an official meeting,” she said.
Another two inquiries were submitted by Siarhei Piatrukhin, one containing 40 questions and the other 20.
“For each question, he asks for a detailed response rather than general wording. And I am grateful to Mr Piatrukhin for giving the commission substantial work. Very thorough work. But I think we will review these appeals in the working order and respond to him in writing,” Prykhodzka said.
According to Pavel Liber, who is responsible for the technical support of the voting process, DDOS attacks on the voting platform continued throughout all previous days. In April, around 18 billion requests were sent as part of attacks on the “Try Slany” platform where the electoral lists were размещены.
“In fact, when voting began, we recorded two major attacks right at the start — 1.9 billion and 1.3 billion requests. Then, the next day, around 2 billion requests came into our Google dashboard. At the same time, we are recording not only mass attacks but also rather targeted requests amounting to tens of millions directed at various components of our system.
This is a standard stress test. And at the same time, the methods are constantly changing. Thus, we see that representatives of the regime are very focused on trying to identify at least some weak point. They strike at different points, see that something does not work there, and then strike at other points.
So we see that there is a dedicated team there whose task is either to bring the system down with requests or, if that fails, to identify specific vulnerabilities. So far, we do not see that they have managed to identify anything at all,” he said.
Pavel Liber noted that the requests are not coming from ordinary bot farms but are disguised as mobile devices, which allows them to pass test networks. However, the platform “thanks to good hardware and servers” is withstanding these attacks.
“So I think this will continue non-stop until the end of the elections. But today is a good sign: it is the first morning without mass attacks, although there are still some targeted requests,” he said.
As Coordination Council speaker Artsiom Brukhan reported, the council is also voting on the Election Commission’s recommendation to extend the voting period. Initially, voting was scheduled to take place from May 11 to May 17. However, due to technical issues and DDOS attacks, the actual start was delayed by 36 hours. After the decision is adopted, the Coordination Council will announce it officially. Preliminary election results will be announced the day after the actual end of voting.