The Independent Electoral Commission`s (IEC) voter registration programme reached a significant milestone this week when the first phase of the contract for the supply of 25 000 hand-held scanners was delivered to the IEC`s Pretoria head office by supplier, ICL South Africa.
ICL SA won the four-way tender - valued at R90-million - in June on the strength of its locally developed and manufactured product, its associated empowerment programme, and its ability to deliver all the required units by the end of October.
ICL SA client director for central government accounts, Dr Sam van Tonder, says the delivery of the first 18 000 ICL Programmable Barcode Scanning Units (PBSUs), (or zip-zips as they will be known in election marketing campaigns) with integrated printers, will assure that see voter registration can commence within the timeframe established by the IEC.
According to Dr van Tonder, the IEC`s commitment to delivering an election of absolute integrity has necessitated the need for the establishment of a voters roll, the demarcation into voting districts, and speedy and accurate registration of all eligible voters.
"However, this brings enormous challenges, as all South African citizens over the age of 18, regardless of where they may reside, need to be captured on the roll - and that`s where the battery-powered and portable ICL "zip-zip" PBSU comes in," he says.
The IEC has identified some 14 500 voting districts and will send electoral officers into the field to register voters. Voters will present their ID documents to the officers who, in the case of the new ID documents, will scan in the information via the barcode on the front page. Where temporary identification certificates are presented, the owners will be given temporary registration certificates with a barcode holding all relevant citizen information.
At the end of each day, the captured data will be uploaded from the ICL zip-zip PBSUs via personal computers at larger local authorities to the IEC head office in Pretoria, where bona fides will be verified. On election day, the ICL zip-zips will scan the print-out in voters` ID documents and confirm the legitimacy of voters, after which they will be allowed to vote.
One of ICL`s partners in the project, Dexdata Technologies, developed special encryption and compression techniques that will ensure the integrity and security of the data.
"The ICL zip-zips will help to enhance the free and fair nature of the 1999 elections. The technology, too, will ensure that voters are registered ahead of the election, and that voting will proceed quickly and efficiently on election day," says Dr van Tonder.
The ICL zip-zip is manufactured locally by ICL SA. The product is well-established in the banking and retail industries, with some 60 000 units installed countrywide.
Its high local content; ICL SA`s ability to deliver, service and maintain the product; and ICL`s policy of using SMMEs and previously disadvantaged individuals in the assembly of the product, were seen as key factors in the awarding of the contract.
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