AMSTERDAM, 07/07/06 - A group of experts have launched a campaign against the voting machines used in elections in the Netherlands. They say the computers are unreliable.

On a website (wijvertrouwenstemcomputersniet.nl), initiator Rop Gonggrijp explains he wants to check up on elections via voting computers. He is founder of XS4All, the oldest Dutch Internet provider. Gongrijp is backed by people including software writer Peter Knoppers of the University of Delft, researcher Anne-Marie Oostveen of the Rathenau Institute and encryption expert Barry Wels.

In the Netherlands, voting with a pencil is only occasionally still used. Computers are used almost everywhere. This will not be different during the 22 November early general elections.

"Checkups on vote-counting are done by a handful of technicians, test institutions and civil servants," Gonggrijp complains. He wants the source code of the software used to be published. A copy should be made of each vote to allow retrospective checking of the outcome and to be able to carry out a random survey, Knoppers added.

Nederlandsche Apparatenfabriek (Nedap), the company that supplies around 90 percent of the voting machines used in the Netherlands, said it would even consider releasing the source code. "Anyone could then copy our machines", a spokesman explained. Nedap also supplies voting machines to foreign governments.