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The printers were used in mobile registration centres set up in each of
the country’s 18 provinces. The voters’ identity was verified and
biographical and biometric fingerprint data, with a digital photograph,
were printed and encoded on the card.

In all 700 P640i secure id printers were supplied over an eight month
period providing each voter with secure, tamper resistant identification
in readiness for the country’s upcoming legislative and presidential
elections in September 2008 and 2009 respectively.

With an area of almost 1.25 million square kilometres, Angola is five
times the size of the UK with a demographic density of just eight people
per square kilometer, making the remote delivery of the project its
biggest challenge.

The security class card printers were supplied by auto-identification
specialist Identisis, a leading Zebra Card Printer reseller, to SINFIC,
the systems integrator on behalf of the Angolan government. SINFIQ
created mobile registration centers for each of the 18 provinces and a
National Data Center for the aggregation and quality control of data.

Card printing equipment had to be able to withstand the rigours of the
Angolan climate while reliably producing the voters’ ID cards in remote
locations on demand. It was important too, that the right consumables to
deal with these conditions were available.

The choice of the Zebra P640i was endorsed by Identisis following
Zebra’s early involvement in project discussions, which included testing
every element of the unit’s performance to demonstrate its capabilities
in what would prove to be trying local conditions, and training local
operators in the use of the machines.

The P640i printers were chosen for two main reasons. The P640i produces
secure cards that can hold significant amounts of information including
photo ID, fingerprint, and encoded details that can be read from a
barcode on the reverse. Secondly, because the card is laminated, the
card and the data are protected and won’t be corrupted by heat, dust, or
humidity.

Around 40 people were trained initially and divided into seven
’brigades’ that travelled out into the Angolan provinces, often to
remote villages, to record voters’ details and produce the cards.

The mobile registration teams would identify citizen voters, collect
biographical and biometric data, take a photograph, and then print the
card on the spot. This information was then stored on the National Data
Centre to centralise the data and help to combat any attempted fraud of
multiple registrations.

"Zebra have provided high levels of support from the very start of this
project. They have worked with us on both the specification and
implementation elements of the project and this teamwork helped to
ensure effective execution of the solution," said Mario Bonixe, Managing
Director of Identisis.

’Zebra delivered a very professional service, not just in the quality
and durability of the printers, but also through their commitment to
training people to operate them efficiently in difficult environmental
conditions,’ commented Eurico Santos, of Systems integrator SINFIC.