British prime minister election delayed over security concerns

The governing Conservative Party in Britain on Tuesday delayed sending out ballots to its 180,000 party members voting for prime minister. The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre advised the party to enhance its security measures first. The party had intended to allow members to vote by mail or online and change their votes up until Sep. 2. Now voters will cast unchangeable votes once. They’ll receive their ballots Aug. 11, according to party officials. A new prime minister will be announced Sept. 5.

What are the security concerns? The National Cyber Security Centre issued only a general statement about its advice to the party. But The Daily Telegraph reported that original election plans possessed possible vulnerabilities that autonomous hackers could exploit and that no specific groups or states had threatened to tamper with the election. Jamie MacColl, a cybersecurity expert at the Royal United Services Institute, said Russia likely wouldn’t try to interfere with the election, as both candidates,  Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, are self-described supporters of Ukraine.

Dig deeper: Read Calvin Robinson’s column in WORLD Opinions about the fall of former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.