Although a large number of ICTs standards define the minimum requirements of (for example) biometric systems exist, attention should be drawn to the fact that – in the context of electoral processes – EMBs and other national institutions, UNDP and other international development partners believe that these standards are not mandatory and therefore do not assert compliance with standards.
This creates an environment which is not conducive to convergence of the procured solutions with other needs within the country, e.g. public administration. Furthermore, many EMBs, UNDP offices and other actors do not perform acceptance testing of provided solutions beforehand. These issues, which impact upon sustainability, should ideally be carefully revised in the specifications phase.
As an example of how using standards can simplify long term planning, standards specified in 1984 by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Document 9303 can be used to specify the layout of the civic ID or voter card. The same standard can be used to specify photo sizes to be used on these cards. This ICAO 9303 document also specifies how the photo should look like with regards to lighting, distance, coverage, etc. This standard will ensure that future electoral cycles will have the same look and feel, same standard layout, no matter which vendor is used. This will reduce costs (same graphics design, same printing facilities, etc.) and reduce confusion with election officials on Election Day.
ICAO 9303 also specifies the electronic information standards to be used on e-voter or e-citizen ID’s. ICAO also recommends that the fingerprints image should be stored in the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) developed compression format called Wavelet Scalar Quantization (WSQ). This ensures that the captured fingerprints could be re-used when a new biometric vendor is selected in following electoral cycles. The WSQ standard is also the most effective compression format for fingerprints. The same goes for the photos, recommended to be stored in the JPEG 2000 (J2K) format. This will reduce storage size (and therefore costs) and ensure sustainability.
The technical specifications sections of the ICAO 9303 document, Parts 1, 2 and 3, have received the endorsement of the International Organisation for Standardization as ISO Standards 7501-1, 7501-2 and 7501-3, respectively. Such endorsement is made possible by means of a liaison mechanism through which manufacturers of travel documents, readers and other technologies provide technical and engineering advice to the Technical Advisory Group/Machine Readable Travel Document (TAG/MRTD) under the auspices of ISO. Through this working relationship, the ICAO specifications have achieved the status of worldwide standards by means of a simplified procedure within ISO. The liaison mechanism with ISO has been successfully applied not only to the endorsement of new specifications for travel documents as ISO Standards but also to the approval of amendments to the specifications. Subsequent revisions to Doc 9303, Parts 1, 2 and 3, will therefore be processed for ISO endorsement in the same manner as previously.
Risks involved increase even further if, in addition to not requesting compliance with practises and/or standards, EMBs choose not to perform acceptance testing of provided solutions. Because of the importance of the software component of the biometric solution, EMBs (and national authorities in charge of civil registration) should adapt common standards in procurement of software products and services as described in IEEE 12207.
This standard presents the commonly accepted practices for ensuring a well-defined and persistent assurance process for acquired software. The 12207 framework describes a complete set of practices for software, which range all the way from conceptualization through retirement.
This translates into the following activities:
Formal acceptance of the solution includes preparation and performance of test cases, test data, test procedures, and a test environment. Inspections and audits are rigorous but they require resources and have concomitant costs. It means that when drafting the Request for Proposal (RFP) for procuring a biometric voter solution, the RFP has to be both feasible and cost justifiable. In this way, EMBs and Procurement Officers will have the adequate decision-making tools when it comes to ICTs, especially for biometric voter registration projects.
