Secure Printers Play Part In Angolan Elections

P640i printers from Zebra helped to register eight million Angolan voters using biometric data.

The printers played their part in the first elections in Angola for the past 16 years.

The printers were used in mobile registration centres in each of the country's 18 provinces.

Voters' identities were verified and biographical and biometric fingerprint data, with a digital photograph, were printed and encoded on the card.

Seven hundred P640i secure identity printers were supplied over an eight month period providing each voter with secure, tamper-resistant identification in readiness for the country's legislative and presidential elections this September and in September 2009, respectively.

With an area of almost 1.25 million square kilometres and a demographic density of eight people per square kilometre, making the remote delivery of the project was the biggest challenge for Zebra, said the company.

The security class card printers were supplied by auto-identification firm Identisis, a Zebra card printer reseller, to SINFIC, the systems integrator on behalf of the Angolan government.

SINFIQ created mobile registration centres for each of the 18 provinces and a National Data Centre for the aggregation and quality control of data.

Card printing equipment had to be able to withstand the Angolan climate, whilst reliably producing the voters' identity cards in remote locations on demand.

It was also important that the right consumables were provided.

The choice of the Zebra P640i was endorsed by Identisis following Zebra's early involvement in project discussions, which included testing every element of the unit's performance to demonstrate its capabilities in what would prove to be trying local conditions and training local operators in the use of the machines, said the company.

The P640i printers were chosen because they produce secure cards that can hold significant amounts of information, including photographic identity, fingerprint and encoded details that can be read from a barcode on the reverse.

Secondly, because the card is laminated, the card and the data are protected and will not be corrupted by heat, dust, or humidity.

Forty people were trained initially and divided in to seven 'brigades' that travelled to the Angolan provinces, often to remote villages, to record voters' details and produce the cards.

The mobile registration teams would identify citizen voters, collect biographical and biometric data, take a photograph and then print the card on the spot.

The information was stored at the National Data Centre to centralise the data and help to combat any attempted fraud of multiple registrations.

Mario Bonixe, the managing director of Identisis, said: "Zebra has provided high levels of support from the very start of this project.

The company has worked with us on the specification and implementation elements of the project and this teamwork helped to ensure effective execution." Eurico Santos, systems integrator at SINFIC, commented: "Zebra delivered a very professional service, not just in the quality and durability of the printers but also through its commitment to training people to operate them efficiently in difficult environmental conditions.".

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