By Lynford Simpson,
Staff Reporter
THE ELECTORAL Advisory Committee (EAC) is to import 20 machines capable of triggering a ballot by matching fingerprints. These machines are to be tested in up-coming by-elections to determine their feasibility for use in national elections, The Gleaner has learnt.
The machines are being acquired from the two companies short-listed by the EAC after a demonstration in Kingston last month. The two companies, SAGEM of France and the United States-based Cogent Systems Ltd, along with TRW Inc., also from the United States, were invited by the EAC to conduct demonstrations of their fingerprint matching equipment aimed at identifying voters electronically.
Senator Ryan Peralto, the Jamaica Labour Party's (JLP) representative on the EAC confirmed that the two companies have been shortlisted and will shortly be bringing in their equipment. "This time the specifications are going to be absolutely uniform. Everybody is going to provide exactly the same thing," he told The Gleaner. Once received, the equipment will be put through two phases of testing "in order to ensure the equipment that we finally have is what we want," the JLP representative explained. "We can then proceed to order for elections," he added.
The EAC, according to Mr. Peralto, was of the view that testing of the equipment should be done in a "live situation". With a number of Parish Council by-elections on the cards, the EAC is hoping to get that opportunity soon. That, Mr. Peralto said, would be a "precursor to any national election process (using machines)".
When contacted last night Senator Maxine Henry-Wilson the Government's representative on the EAC declined to comment on whether the machines were being bought. She instead referred The Gleaner to EAC chairman Professor Errol Miller and Director of Elections Danville Walker, neither of whom could be reached for comment.
For his part, JLP Leader Edward Seaga, was pleased with the decision. "We are happy about that (the decision to import the equipment). There is no question about it. That is what we want. We want the new system in place," Mr Seaga said in response to questions about how crucial the ongoing reform process was to his party's chances of winning the next general election.
There were a number of glitches during last month's testing of the machines at the Jamaica Conference Centre, downtown Kingston. SAGEM had a particularly difficult time identifying would-be voters by fingerprint and held a subsequent demonstration at its own expense.
Mr. Walker defended SAGEM at the time, explaining that unlike the US companies SAGEM used a different system of matching fingerprints. He pointed out that TRW not only uses Cogent, but the system it used to capture fingerprints in the enumeration of voters was built by Cogent. TRW uses the same system now used in fixed voter enumeration centres throughout the island.
Both Mr. Seaga and Mr. Peralto spoke with The Gleaner during a break in the JLP's one-day retreat at the Stony Hill HEART Academy yesterday. Buoyed by the recent by-election victory in the St. Ann North East constituency and opinion polls, Mr. Seaga said the party was ready for general elections. He said he would let the people decide when that time should be.
