Bahwan IT to conduct the Majlis As'Shura Elections 2003

This is the fifth term of the Majlis As'Shura, which found its roots in 1990 under the auspices of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos Bin Said.

This election is to be held across all the 59 Wilayats in the Sultanate.

The Nationality and Election Affairs section of the Ministry of Interior is responsible in conducting these elections.

A technical committee, including eminent officials from various ministries and Bahwan IT together worked out the entire process and modalities of the election.

Bahwan IT, the IT wing of the Suhail Bahwan group has been entrusted this mammoth task to manage this entire project of critical national importance by the Ministry of Interior.

This election boasts of many firsts - In terms of all eligible citizens to vote and choose their candidates and in terms of deployment of Information Technology to good use.

As part of statistics there are 59 Wilayats across the Sultanate spanning all the eight regions of Mahafawat Muscat, Dhakliyah region, Sharkiyah, AL Batinah, Al Wusta, Mahafawat Dhofar, Al Dhahirah and Musandam regions.

A total of 506 candidates are vying for the coveted post of the members of the Shura in their respective Wilayats, voters are expected to come in large numbers and make their choice in this historic and landmark event.

There are different phases in this election, firstly the registration of voters, where forms were sent out to each Wilayat and duly filled up by the citizens with their details of passport number, personal ID number, Wilayat of Birth, Voting Wilayat, date of birth and other personal details, a voter identification number is allotted to each one of the citizens.

This phase started early June this year where the Ministry of Interior distributed these forms through the Wali in each Wilayat. The response was tremendous and the filled forms returned to the Ministry, the information was then keyed in through the voter registration software developed by Bahwan IT.

The same software was used to print specialized Identity cards for all the voters using special card printers supplied by Bahwan IT. This card contains the citizens details like passport number, personal number, Wilayat represented and so on. Security measures were taken while printing these cards as this data was tallied with the country database. A barcode has also been included in the card serving as the voter identification number for identification by automated barcode scanners.

These cards are all now printed and being distributed to the citizens.

Another first is the use of special ballot papers and automated identification, sorting and counting machines to be used on the polling day. The Sultanate takes pride in the fact that it is the first country in the GCC and the middle east regions to deploy the use of such machines.

Bahwan IT along with its technology partner in the UK are printing these specialized ballot papers and supplying the automated scanners. This technology has been tried, tested and proved in elections around different parts of the world like London, many places in the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Norway, Bosnia and other countries.

Data Capture in terms of OMR or Optical Mark Recognition technology is the prime mover behind these elections, the ballot papers have the names of the candidates of the respective Wilayats in Arabic along with their colour photographs and a tick box where the voters cross a mark to make their choice. This is the first time that such a ballot paper is being printed anywhere in the world. Security features like unique numbered barcodes, clock tracks and decode matrices have been included to avoid duplicates and facilitate fast identification and counting.

On the Polling day, the voter presents his identification card at the voting center , a barcode reader scans the card and the voter is given a ballot paper on which he marks his choice and drops it into the ballot box.

The process employed makes it very easy for the voter and because of use of computers and automated equipment, there would be a very fast throughput. A good percentage of women voters are expected to participate in the election process.

There are approximately around ninety polling stations spread across the Sultanate with multiple polling stations in more densely populated areas, these ballot boxes are then brought to the respective Wali's offices where counting centers have been set up. This distributed set up is to ensure that each Wilayat is localized with their own polling station and counting centers.

Automated OMR scanners along with a special decode software, developed and provided by Bahwan IT would be used at the counting centers to scan all the ballot papers and immediately announce the results of the election. Seasoned psephologists remark that the results can be expected the night of the election itself. This is a great step to put Oman on the technology map of the World.

A huge logistics effort is in process to ensure that the elections are streamlined in all the 59 Wilayats, all the Walis, ministry officials and adjudicators, whose number exceeds three hundred, have been trained and are geared up for this prestigious event on the 4th of October, a day where all the worlds eyes would be on Oman.