printer friendly version

Surveillance enhances election credibility

NUUO, together with 445 channels of AXIS and Mobotix IP cameras, were installed in 70 voting stations.

In June 2009, the Albanian government held a political election. Prior to the election, a surveillance system had been installed by system integrator Shine with the mission of assisting the authorities in ensuring the elections achieved public credibility and to prevent election irregularities.

There are 70 voting stations in Albania, and the surveillance system needed to monitor and record the process of the ballot casting, counting and announcing. To avoid any possible dispute in this election, the most important consideration for the government was the stability of the surveillance system when the 70 regional locations operated and processed huge numbers of video signals at the same time.

There were 445 IP cameras installed in this system, including Axis and Mobotix cameras with two different surveillance targets. Axis 207MW Megapixel IP cameras were installed near the vote counting tables to record the vote counting process as well as the later announcement of the results. At the same time, Mobotix Q24 IP dome cameras were installed in the centre of the voting room’s ceiling for general surveillance.

NUUO Live View and Remote Live View control the system by limits of authority, and it can choose among various stream profiles to meet different needs. For vote result announcing, the stream must have high resolution to record the content on the ballots, but for general monitoring, the manager can modify the frame rate to the most appropriate level, thus using resources in the most efficient way.

NUUO enables 128 CH streams of remote live view at one time, offering stable video quality, and it helped the central government to monitor all situations in the election offices. The voting sites were connected by a VPN (virtual private network) to the Interior Ministry. During the election, the officers observed feeds from all the sites, and were able to monitor all facets of the election as well as react when an adverse event occurred. In addition, in the case of any irregularities, the event would be recorded, allowing the government to deal confidently with any dispute or controversy.

A political election needs to avoid all manner of controversy and dispute, it is why all processes need be publicly recorded and disclosed.

Share this article:

Further reading: