According to an agreement with Burkina Faso’s Independent National Elections Committee (CENI), SES Broadband Services along with its partners Newtec, Access Sat and Unicom, will provide satellite equipment and bandwidth. These services aim to deliver video conferencing, surveillance, Internet access and fast and secure communication of ballots by enabling connectivity between the 45 electoral district offices and serving as the hubs for 14,698 polling stations across the country, and the central election office in the capital Ouagadougou.

Satellite capacity will be provided via an SES satellite at 5 degrees East and Newtec hardware and hub-infrastructure. Access Sat will install the VSAT terminals and Unicom will supply the video and LAN network equipment.

“The selected SES technology will facilitate a transparent electoral process, providing rapid and highly reliable data transfers,” CENI President Mr. Barthelemy Kéré said in a statement. “A series of innovations will also be introduced, including the use of biometrics for the voter registration. The selected satellite VSAT platform gives the advantage of quick deployment for fast transmission of electoral data from remote locations.”