RSTP asked not to upgrade election
mfanukhona@times.co.sz BABANE – Prince Mhla buhlangene has revealed that RSTP told them it was not going to provide the software system for elections on time.
The chairman of the Elections and %oundaries Commission (E%C) and former deputy governor of the Central %anN of Eswatini said they started engaging RSTP as early as the first half of last year.
He said the engagements started and resulted in a Service Level $greement between E%C and the Royal Science and Technology ParN, Nnown as RSTP.
MENGAGEMENTS
He said the engagements were cen tred on the management information technology solution for the 2023 *en eral Elections. He said E%C wanted to be as ready as possible hence the talNs began as early as last year.
The local government election is linNed to the general elections.
The prince explained that the public enterprise told them that it was not going to be able to meet the deadline of supplying the system upgrade re quired by the E%C because the 2018 IT solution was a customised one.
$nother reason was that the µsoft ware and source code¶ on which the hardware ran was not in possession of E%C and in turn RSTP felt it was not going to be able to meet the deadline without the two critical components ± software and source code.
$ source code is generally under stood to mean programming state ments that are created by a program mer with a text editor or a visual programming tool and then saved in a file. It is often written in the form of functions, descriptions, definitions, calls, methods and other operational statements.
Customised software is specially developed for some specific organi sation or other user.
In an interview, Prince Mhlabuh langene, popularly Nnown as Mhlaba, said the E%C then decided to imme diately commence the process, in collaboration with RSTP, of getting a vendor in the open marNet.
He said both entities (RSTP and E%C) wanted a vendor which would be able to develop the software and source code within the stretch target time through an open tender process.
Pertaining to the general election, he said they followed the tendering system and it was still in motion, adding that the results of which would be Nnown in the coming few weeNs.
³$s such we hope to get the upgrade vendor, who will be successful in taNing up the challenge of delivering according to the tender requirements and on time for E%C to immediately commence the voter registration for the 2023 *eneral Election,´ said the E%C chairman.
SLOMOES ELECTIONS TENDER; ENTITIES
Local government elections
On the contentious local govern ment elections, the prince said the E%C, again, did not have the required software and source code to enable re customisation for local govern ment election purposes.
$s a result, he said E%C advised the Ministry of Housing and 8rban 'evelopment to engage with the software and source code possessor if there would be a need to borrow the IT system from E%C.
³:e did advise, that, when we did our elections, we were doing so in collaboration with RSTP and the vendor Slomoes Corporation, who had the software and source code advantage on the existing system. This all depended on the direction the Ministry of Housing and 8rban 'evelopment was going to choose to follow, regarding their intended local government elections IT system strategy,´ he said.
$sNed why the E%C did not run the local government elections, Prince Mhlaba said several official legal opinions and a Supreme Court Mudge ment directed them to consider allow ing the ministry to invoNe the 8rban