April 22, 2007 Election commission (EC) requested the government to allocate Tk 450 crore in the next budget for its projects to prepare a voter list and national identity cards. The request was made when Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) ATM Shamsul Huda and Election Commissioners Sohul Hossain and Brig Gen (retd) Sakhawat Hossain met Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed at his office on that day.
CEC said the EC has begun the task of preparing the voter list and is trying to get funds in this regard. "We have also requested the chief adviser for coordinating the issue of finance as to how the money will be made available."
About the appointment of foreign consultants for the voter list project, CEC said the foreign consultants have already been selected while local consultants are yet to be finalized.
I am sure EC is reviewing all the options carefully and will try its best to provide a complete solution, nothing less and nothing more. I repeat nothing more. I would focus on the computerization part of the project in this writing. As foreign consultants has been already selected, I am sure EC has the specification of the type of the computing system they want with the necessary firmware and software. We have to be very cautious here that we do nothing more, thereby do not pay premium for unnecessary software and features with the hard earned tax payers money. We have 30, 000 polling stations, that translate into at least 30 thousand computers. Here is an option to bring it down the computerization project to ~200 Cr or less.
Recently a university in Pakistan has agreed to a very large purchase: 700,000 Intel-powered Classmate PCs. Leaders from Intel and Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) signed a memorandum of understanding which will put fully-functional Intel-powered PCs into the hands of students all across Pakistan. Allama Iqbal Open University is not a small school; it serves more than 1 million young people. But with the lowest price of a laptop in Pakistan about $600 relatively few of those students can afford to own one. Similarly in Dhaka a budget laptop nearly cost USD$600 US Dollar. The interesting part of the deal is that the Classmate PCs for the Pakistan deal will offer some additional features such as a larger screen and a 20Gb hard disk, but will still be priced about half of those least expensive machines.
What it means that for a bulk government purchase EC may get their computers with their specification (nothing more), a customized laptop which may cost ~USD$300. It could be very well customized with finger print recognizing technology so that all voters in the polling station may get their finger print captured along with their digital photos. Assuming that these features are in the EC’s specification.
I would also like to present it as an real time example that The Classmate PCs for Allama Iqbal University will be manufactured by a local company of Pakistan with the help of Intel world ahead Program. Any Bangladeshi company simply can do that. The Intel World Ahead Program is company's comprehensive approach to bring uncompromised technology to people all over the world. Intel World Ahead integrates and extends the company's efforts to advance progress in four areas: accessibility to PCs, connectivity, education and content.
In the same sprit, small individual projects may be initiated for the national universities to eradicate digital divide. DU may take one initiative where it will provide a generic specification for such a classmate PC, which will be used for class assignments, communication, and online research. Students may lease these PC in exchange of monthly installments. Other university may get the same architected PC and build their customization. One thing I am emphasizing here is the similar specification. This is a trade between cost (for bulk purchase) and customization.
There are a good number expat Bangladeshi’s working in companies like Intel Corporation, Dell, and Cisco. I am sure they are as well asking themselves why EC of Bangladesh or DU can not get a deal like this from “Intel World Ahead Program”? The question is if the EC willing to talk to them?
Replying to a question, Sakhawat said the EC would sit with the members of the civil society on April 26 to discuss the draft proposal on election laws. "The Commission will sit with 50-60 members of the civil society and the meeting will take place in Dhaka."
In the same sprit I would urge EC to include expatriate Bangladeshi technocrats and professionals along with the in house consultants that they have now. Then sit with them as they would do with the civil society to get a review. So end of the day they will have a broad spectrum of options to make a flawless specification and options.
CEC said the EC has begun the task of preparing the voter list and is trying to get funds in this regard. "We have also requested the chief adviser for coordinating the issue of finance as to how the money will be made available."
About the appointment of foreign consultants for the voter list project, CEC said the foreign consultants have already been selected while local consultants are yet to be finalized.
I am sure EC is reviewing all the options carefully and will try its best to provide a complete solution, nothing less and nothing more. I repeat nothing more. I would focus on the computerization part of the project in this writing. As foreign consultants has been already selected, I am sure EC has the specification of the type of the computing system they want with the necessary firmware and software. We have to be very cautious here that we do nothing more, thereby do not pay premium for unnecessary software and features with the hard earned tax payers money. We have 30, 000 polling stations, that translate into at least 30 thousand computers. Here is an option to bring it down the computerization project to ~200 Cr or less.
Recently a university in Pakistan has agreed to a very large purchase: 700,000 Intel-powered Classmate PCs. Leaders from Intel and Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) signed a memorandum of understanding which will put fully-functional Intel-powered PCs into the hands of students all across Pakistan. Allama Iqbal Open University is not a small school; it serves more than 1 million young people. But with the lowest price of a laptop in Pakistan about $600 relatively few of those students can afford to own one. Similarly in Dhaka a budget laptop nearly cost USD$600 US Dollar. The interesting part of the deal is that the Classmate PCs for the Pakistan deal will offer some additional features such as a larger screen and a 20Gb hard disk, but will still be priced about half of those least expensive machines.
What it means that for a bulk government purchase EC may get their computers with their specification (nothing more), a customized laptop which may cost ~USD$300. It could be very well customized with finger print recognizing technology so that all voters in the polling station may get their finger print captured along with their digital photos. Assuming that these features are in the EC’s specification.
I would also like to present it as an real time example that The Classmate PCs for Allama Iqbal University will be manufactured by a local company of Pakistan with the help of Intel world ahead Program. Any Bangladeshi company simply can do that. The Intel World Ahead Program is company's comprehensive approach to bring uncompromised technology to people all over the world. Intel World Ahead integrates and extends the company's efforts to advance progress in four areas: accessibility to PCs, connectivity, education and content.
In the same sprit, small individual projects may be initiated for the national universities to eradicate digital divide. DU may take one initiative where it will provide a generic specification for such a classmate PC, which will be used for class assignments, communication, and online research. Students may lease these PC in exchange of monthly installments. Other university may get the same architected PC and build their customization. One thing I am emphasizing here is the similar specification. This is a trade between cost (for bulk purchase) and customization.
There are a good number expat Bangladeshi’s working in companies like Intel Corporation, Dell, and Cisco. I am sure they are as well asking themselves why EC of Bangladesh or DU can not get a deal like this from “Intel World Ahead Program”? The question is if the EC willing to talk to them?
Replying to a question, Sakhawat said the EC would sit with the members of the civil society on April 26 to discuss the draft proposal on election laws. "The Commission will sit with 50-60 members of the civil society and the meeting will take place in Dhaka."
In the same sprit I would urge EC to include expatriate Bangladeshi technocrats and professionals along with the in house consultants that they have now. Then sit with them as they would do with the civil society to get a review. So end of the day they will have a broad spectrum of options to make a flawless specification and options.
