The Xunta de Galicia awarded Indra, the premier IT company in Spain and a leading IT multinational in Europe, the scrutiny of the general elections on March 1rst. Indra will provide thorough support during the electoral process, its facilities in the autonomous region, a team of more than 260 Galician professionals, more than 50 specialists in electoral processes and cutting edge technology developed by the IT company.
For the first time PDA’s will be used to transmit information from the polling stations to the reception centres. Automation helps expedite the process at the same time it reduces human error. In the event data reconciliation fails, the PDA detects it and the information will only be transmitted if corrected. More than 1,800 PDA’s will be deployed in every district with more than 24,000 inhabitants, providing a device per polling station and those districts included in Galicia’s Plan de Reequilibrio Territorial 2007-2010 will be equipped with a PDA per electoral college. Indra is the only company who has used PDA’s for provisional count at national and regional elections.
The website of the electoral process (www.eleccions09.xunta.es) will provide e-learning training starting on Feb. 5th-including simulation exercises based on real life situations-to all PDA transistors.
Citizens will be provided with additional transmission channels to access the scrutiny results; that is the case of text messaging through subscription which will inform the results when scrutiny has reached a certain point. Besides this, citizens will also be able to access the counting information in real time by means of a PDA or Blackberry.
In order to increase trustworthiness during the process two data collection centres will be set up: one at the Palacio de Congresos y Exposiciones de Santiago de Compostela, where the results from A Coruña and Lugo will be collected and the other one at Indra’s software lab in A Coruña with an area of 4,500 sq meters where the results from Ourense and Pontevedra will be received. If necessary, in one of these centres the data from all the provinces could be collected. Furthermore, the infrastructures will be redundantly backed up-above a 20%-in case of events due to external factors.
Indra will also provide support to the provincial electoral boards for the definite scrutiny and during the count of the CERA vote, which is highly important due to the significant amount of voters living abroad.
Galicians abroad
The Elections on March 1rst will be the first Galician electoral process that offers Galicians living abroad the possibility to visualize in real time the scrutiny by means of screens at the Xunta offices in Buenos Aires. This initiative is quite significant as there are 115,000 Galicians currently living in Argentina. This way, Indra also provides the autonomous government with its resources outside Galicia through its offices distributed across the world. The company has been present in Argentina for more than 15 years and employs 800 professionals.
The Galician colony in Madrid will also be provided with the necessary equipment to visualize the provisional scrutiny at the Xunta’s offices in Madrid.
The results of town council elections will also be shown in 320 screens implemented at the Palacio de Congresos y Exposiciones de Santiago de Compostela by the IT company.
Leadership in electoral processes
For the last few years, Indra has reinforced its international profile by carrying out elections in Norway, France, and Argentina among others. In 2008, the company undertook the elections to the Cortes Generales in Spain and to Andalucía’s parliament, to the Mayor of London and the London assembly as well as the legislative elections in Angola. The company’s experience is based on more than 280 successful electoral processes across the world with more than 1,800 million voters and is a leader in the use of new technologies such as PDA’s, the electronic vote, e-counting, internet vote and software development for citizens.
Indra’s investments in R+D+i aim at finding numerous ways for citizens to access electoral information at the same time, guaranteeing transparency in the processes: Blackberry, PDA, SMS, website to publish results, Extended broadcast (Buenos Aires/Madrid) or email. Indra’s Integrated Vote Counting System (SIRE) has been tested, audited and compared in 20 countries guarantees security, quality and transparency in the process.
Strong presence in Galicia
More than 300 professionals of Indra currently work in Galicia in the company’s offices in A Coruña, Vigo, Santiago de Compostela, Ourense and Ferrol.
One of the most relevant initiatives was the start up of A Coruña’s software Lab that will employ 400 professionals who hold a degree granted by Galician universities. This centre will offer Galician professionals the opportunity to start a career in the first IT company in Spain without having to move or relinquish their quality of life and at the same time it will boost productivity in this sector in Galicia by exporting products developed in this area.
Indra is the premier Information Technology company in Spain and a leading IT multinational in Europe and Latin America. It is ranked as the second European company in its sector according to stock market capitalisation, and also the second Spanish company with the most investment in R&D. In 2007, revenues reached € 2,167 M, of which a third came from the international market. The company employs more than 24,000 professionals and has clients in more than 90 countries.
y con clientes en más de 90 países.