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Inside the IEC nerve centre
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PDF The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has officially opened its national Results Operation Centre (ROC) in Tshwane as part of the final preparations for the 2011 Municipal Elections.
Chief Electoral Officer, Pansy Tlakula, said for the next few days until the final results are announced the ROC will become the central point from which all election-related activities throughout the country are coordinated.
“This Results Operations Centre will be the hub for all operations on election day. One reason for having a centre such as this is the credibility and transparency it brings to the results process,” she explained.
As results slips are captured at the municipal electoral offices (MEOs) across the country, the data will be transferred to the IEC computer systems via the national IT network infrastructure and stored in a central database.
“Although we realise that technical readiness and excellence alone is not nearly sufficient to deliver an election that would be received by all participants as “free and fair”, it is pleasing to note that the Commission has been able to maintain a state of readiness for conducting these elections,” said Tlakula.
The IEC says that state-of-the-art IT and GIS applications will rapidly make data available for communication to political parties, media and IEC staff within the venue and to the nine provincial ROCs.
In addition, data in various formats will be displayed on two huge projection screens in the centres. Graphic interpretations, maps, analysis, running scores and percentages are all popular displays.
GPS cell-phone service providers have provided additional local coverage at the ROC for the election period while a mobile Telkom exchange was brought in to enhance the communicability of the centre.
Telkom is the principle (platinum) sponsor whilst Hewlett-Packard is a gold sponsor and Accenture and Internet Solutions are silver sponsors.
Some of the features of the 12 000 m² Hall include 450 computer workstations and 300 telephone units. The centre also has more than 20 kilometres of data, fibre and telephone cabling and an additional 800 electricity power points.
Two television stations – the SABC and etv - and seven radio stations will have studios and broadcast from the centre. A further 50 offices, server rooms, board rooms, meeting rooms and storerooms were built to house officials and equipment.
“From our side, we commit to do our utmost best in delivering this year’s elections and to ensure that transparency, accountability, professionalism and independence characterise the running of these elections. Such qualities are now increasingly associated with this Commission and its operations and this year we plan to underscore these principles in our work more than we have done before,” said IEC chairperson, Brigalia Bam.
