Britain’s ruling Conservative Party stated on Wednesday that it had changed the method its members vote for party leader and prime minister between former Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss after the nation’s spies warned that cyber hackers could alter members’ ballots.
At first, members were supposed to be able to vote online or by mail, and if they changed their minds, they could use the other method to cancel their earlier vote.
After consulting with the National Cyber Security Center, however, the party headquarters decided to make changes that would cause a slight delay in the process (NCSC).
Postal ballots were supposed to be delivered by next Thursday, but they were supposed to be sent out on Monday. It is now expected that they will start to be sent out a few days later.
“We chose to strengthen the voting process’ security after discussing it with the NCSC. This week, people who are eligible to vote will start getting voting packets, a Conservative Party representative said.
The “Daily Telegraph,” which first reported the change, said that the NCSC, which is part of the UK government’s Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) listening post, told the Conservative Party to change its mind about a plan to let members change their votes later.
“As you would expect from the UK’s national cyber security body, the NCSC, we talked to the Conservative Party about the security implications of online leadership voting,” said an NCSC representative.
In the statement, it was said that the NCSC puts protecting the UK’s democracy and voting systems at the top of its list of priorities and works closely with all parliamentary political parties, local governments, and MPs to offer advice and support on cyber security.
As a result of the change, the Conservative Party has had to give up plans to let members change their vote for the party leader. This is because of concerns about hacking.
“Your ballot is currently en route to you, but it won’t arrive as soon as we had hoped. you as quickly as we had hoped. Don’t worry, please. This is because we took some time to add some extra security to our voting process, which caused us to be a little late, according to an email sent to the roughly 180,000 Tory members who are eligible to vote and obtained by the newspaper.
“Voting more than once is against the law. If a member is found to have done this, their membership in the party will be taken away,” it says.
Under the first plan, Tories were to get a mail-in ballot with a special code. Then, they could vote for the first time in a Tory leadership election online or by mail. This stays the same.
Members could change their vote by mail or online at any time during the contest. But as of now, that choice is no longer possible. Under the new system, once a member votes, their personal code will no longer work. This will make it impossible to change their vote later in the race.
The last day to sign up to vote is September 2, in the evening. The winner will answer their first Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) in the House of Commons on September 7.
