JCE to secure US$62mn loan for e-voting

The Dominican Republic's electoral board JCE expects the government to provide a guarantee so it can take out a US$62mn loan with US bank Eximbank and Brazil's national development bank BNDES to develop civil registry and electronic voting applications, local press reported. A decision to guarantee the loan depends on ratification by the national congress. The JCE would have 10 years to repay the loan with a two-year grace period. Last September, the JCE awarded the project to Soluciones Modernas (SOMO) a consortium formed by US storage firm Softek, Brazilian electronics supplier Samurai and the society of Caribbean engineers (Soinca). Somo will implement the project in 278 days after receiving initial funds to start developing it. The project includes a new electronic voting system that should allow the JCE to announce the final count of any vote five hours after the election. There is a second stage to the project of five years for maintenance and software support. To implement the complete project, Somo must develop, implement, install and provide licenses, products and services. Among these, JCE needs secure identity cards, computing centers, voting booths and biometric identification equipment. Somo has emphasized the high levels of security the system offers, guaranteeing authenticity, accurate vote counts and speed when issuing bulletins. The system is designed to interact with traditional voting booths if there are circumstances in which electronic booths cannot be used.