The Minister of Communications and Information Technology Amr Talaat and the Head of the National Election Authority (NEA) Lashin Ibrahim have signed a cooperation protocol between the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) and NEA, via videoconference, with the aim to develop the infrastructure and information infrastructure at NEA.
 
The three-year protocol comprises carrying out a number of projects, including linking NEA with the involved entities to update the electoral databases. The aim is to provide a secure link mechanism and set rules for updating data, between NEA and those entities, the most prominent of which is the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Health, the Civil Registration Authority, the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Interior, with the possibility of adding more entities in the future during the term of the protocol.
 
The ICT Minister highlighted that the protocol is part of the projects that MCIT implements to provide the technological infrastructure that supports the State’s plans for achieving the transition into a digital society and laying the foundation for developing institutional performance. The protocol also comes within the framework of the fruitful cooperation between MCIT and NEA, stated Talaat.
 
Supporting NEA strategic plans for adopting technology is part of MCIT national duty, especially as NEA bears a great constitutional responsibility, with its willingness to supervise two important constitutional entitlements, added the ICT Minister. He also said that the protocol targets establishing the infrastructure and information infrastructure at NEA through providing the necessary systems and equipment to facilitate NEA work in all future elections.
 
For his part, NEA Head said that the protocol is within the framework of the continuous cooperation between MCIT and NEA, since the latter’s establishment in 2017 and the constitutional entitlements it handled, including the presidential elections in March 2018 and the constitutional referendum in April 2019.
 
The protocol, in addition, comes as part of the national project for developing Egypt, that the political leadership supports and the government is keen to implement, in collaboration with all ministries and authorities, for establishing the technological infrastructure that targets transforming transactions within the Egyptian society, from paper to digital, added Ibrahim.
 
Ibrahim, also, said that the protocol targets developing NEA infrastructure and information infrastructure to facilitate its work in all the constitutional responsibilities and electoral operations it is responsible of.
 
Furthermore, the protocol entails carrying out projects for developing NEA website and its applications pertaining to allocating judges and administrative personnel to polling stations during elections. This is in addition to equipping NEA judges and administrative personnel allocation room, providing the needed equipment, tools and different communication means, and providing a mechanism for linking NEA with judicial authorities and bodies, courts of first instance and relevant entities.
 
Establishing an automatic elector placement system, a media center, a complaint center and an operation room at NEA, and providing a specialized technical training for the two parties of the protocol, are among the protocol objectives as well.