SENEGAL Progressive, established democracy with close ties the EU and increasing prosperity.
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NIGERIA Plays a fundamental part to holding a World Vote as the most populous country on the African Continent. Suffers from a forbidding international reputation as being chaotic, corrupt and outright dangerous. Has a history of military dictatorship and recent democratic institutions. Objectives here focus on exploring the fastest way to reach the entire population of over 120 million people through official and grass-roots channels.

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	DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO Has suffered through a harsh past of dictatorship and a very recent civil war. The war officially ended in 2003, but armed conflict still rages in several parts of the country. DRC comprises a territory that is roughly the size of Western Europe that contains little or no infrastructure.
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CONCLUSION:

Both the social aspects and the technological aspects of the World Vote Field Test were successful. We were able to hold test votes in Senegal, Nigeria and DRC using the satellite voting machine. We voted in French, English, a local language (Wolof) and with illiterate voters using digital recordings. We sent voting results from multiple remote locations and were able to check the automatic reception
and tabulation of the results online. We connected with local civil society organizations, institutions, governmental representatives and electoral commissions. The most striking observation was the universally positive response to the idea of global democracy at all levels of society. The concept of the World Vote carries a magnetic quality that opened many doors and attracted broad support. We collected first-hand confirmation that a great majority of people feels that Health, Access and
Security issues are their main necessities and that a World Vote fundamentally must address these needs. The inquiry into the acquisition of satellite voting machines from INEC and active channels for continued collaboration in all the test countries illustrates the enormous potential of global democracy initiatives supporting local democracy efforts and vice-versa.

SATELLITE VOTING MACHINE:

Technical partner organization: AIDWORLD (www.aidworld.org), a Cambridge (UK) based Tech- NGO.

Chief Executive Officer: Dominic Vergine
Chief Technical Officer: Alan Jackson
Chief Engineer: Chris Wilson
Engineers: Tariq Khokhas, Hamish Downer, Tom Lord

Technical Specs: The prototype satellite voting machine runs on an open-source Linux operating system. The hardware has been constructed from basic, off-the-shelf components and contains a 166 MHZ processor, 128 MB of flash memory, 8-inch monitor as well as USB, serial port and Ethernet connections. The system contains an e-mail application and has been designed to be left in the field to permanently connect remote areas with communications infrastructure. For the purpose of the Field Test we connected through the Thuraya satellite constellation but the system is compatible with all Satellite and GSM networks.

SPECIAL THANKS:

To the international organizations and networks that provided us with support and contacts; G05, Global Democracy Conference, Commonwealth Partnership for Technology Management, The Club of Rome, Bus Productions, Netzkraft, Femnet and CIVICUS and all the local collaborators, coordinators and facilitators who invested their valuable time and energy into this field test.

JBM, Madrid, January 31, 2006.

“World Vote Field Test. Part 1. - Africa (Sub-Sahara); Senegal, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo. December 5-20, 2005.” Download PDF Format (2 MB.)