Originally: CEP seeks funding for registration cards which bear voters’ fingerprints
The Provisional Electoral Council does not currently lack any hands. All nine members are working normally. They are working seriously towards the holding of elections in 2005. If we are to believe Engineer Rosemond Pradel, the CEP members agree with the question of digital voter-registration cards. Therefore, Pradel says, the CEP is currently looking for financing from the sponsors.
Let us follow a report by our colleague Jean-Claudy Saint-Cyr, who was at the CEP premises yesterday, where everyone agrees with the digital voter-registration card.
There is no divergence among the CEP members concerning the question of digital voter-registration cards. These new CEP members have decided not to follow the pattern of traditional elections which have always been held in Haiti so far. Engineer Pradel says that only those who agree to be involved in fraud will not agree with such a process.
“Nobody will disagree with the question of digital voter-registration cards. Within the CEP, the first thing we agreed on is that the question of a piece of cardboard wrapped in a sheet of plastic is something dishonest which allows people to get 10 to 15 voter registration cards, which allows them to vote 10 to 15 times.
“I am sure that everybody agrees with this new process. Nobody in the public, unless he or she is guilty of fraud, will disagree with it. I believe that everybody in the public, all those who want to hold serious elections in the country, all those who would like the vote they express to go to the person they vote for and all those who want the country to get out of the question of fraudulent elections, agree with the digital electoral card.
“The electoral voter-registration card can be used for everything, regardless of the type of vote or type of ballot you want. It is an important tool, because it is one which lasts, on the one hand, and because it does not allow people to have two voter cards, because it will bear the voter’s fingerprint. People cannot have two different fingerprints.
“So, you will have one card and will be able to vote just once. This card will be permanent. So, there will be no need to redo the voter registration cards again in the next few years. As a result, we shall be able to hold other elections sooner and they will be cheaper. I believe that we must make digital voter-registration cards.
“When? We do not yet know, because we need to get financing. This is what we are currently discussing. We are looking for financing.”
Radio Signal: The members of the CEP have already held meetings with several firms about printing digital ballots. None of these firms has won the contract yet, because the electoral authority has not yet found the financing.