The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has awarded a contract to Zetes to provide services and solutions for Sierra Leone’s national elections, set for late 2012.

Under the terms of the deal, Zetes will be responsible for the storage of Sierra Leone voters’ personal data; the operation of biometric control systems associated with voting; and the production of lists of citizens eligible to vote and their personalised voting cards. The electoral process adopted by the National Electoral Commission (NEC) in Sierra Leone is supported by the UNDP.

The project covers the centralisation of individuals’ data, back-up systems and the verification of biometric data through the AFIS control system (Automated Fingerprint Identification System). A separate system of facial recognition is used where fingerprint data is unavailable.

Together with officers from the UNDP and the United Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Office of Sierra Leone (UNIPSIL), representatives from each of the eight political parties in Sierra Leone and a delegation from the NEC visited Zetes’ headquarters in Brussels to attend an in-depth demonstration of the proposed process and technologies used. The delegation has supervised the biometric control operations on the voters’ database and approved the deduplication of data.

Zetes Group CEO Alain Wirtz comments: “This project presented a challenge, particularly because of the very rigorous timing schedule and limited timeframe set out by UNDP. Thanks to the joint efforts and commitment of the teams on both sides, however, we will be able to bring the project to a favourable conclusion. This contract win has provided an additional boost for Zetes as we continue our efforts and investment in developing solutions to address this demand. We believe our solutions are crucial because they provide governments with a guarantee of single registration for each voter.”