North Macedonia’s Public Prosecution Office has launched a pre-investigation procedure over the procurement of software for election purposes by the state election commission (SEC) after its website was hacked following the July 15 vote, media reported on July 28.

The election platform of the SEC was brought down by unknown hackers immediately after voting in the snap general election ended at 9pm on July 15. This prevented journalists and other interested people from monitoring the election results, which were announced with a huge delay a day after the election.

Public prosecutors entered the SEC premises and seized the entire tender documentation to check the legality of the procurement of the software for the election results following media reports, 24mk reported.

The president of the SEC Oliver Derkovski confirmed that prosecutors seized the documentation, but underlined that the procurement was legal.

Derkovski previously explained that the procedure to procure the software was launched in February, but as two tenders failed they started negotiations with two companies. Duna Computers was selected by the SEC on June 19. The appeal by iVote was rejected and Duna officially won the contract on July 8, one week before the election.

Media reported previosly that the cyber attack raised other issues, such as controversial software procurement, as Duna Computers was selected without a transparent tender.

The police are still investigating who stands behind the hacker attack.