CAIRO- In a bid to provide Egyptians with information regarding the upcoming elections, Google has partnered with the Ministry of Administrative Development and the High Commission for Elections on Wednesday. The Ministry of Administrative Development announced the launch of an application programming interface (API) service to facilitate the voting process. This service will allow mobile service providers to develop SMS services, maps, news websites applications and gadgets which can be downloaded to computers and cell phones. According to Google, this service will be free to use by anybody, and is part of the Voting Information Project, “a partnership of state election officials, foundations, and leading technology companies,” which have come together to “connect voters with the information they need to be more engaged citizens.” Google is one of the founders of the system The ministry hopes the service will make election information more accessible to the masses. The information available ranges from information on individual candidates to the final results. The acting minister of Administrative Development has stated that the API will allow voters t search through the extensive databases using their national ID. He also added that the new electoral system means over 50 million Egyptian citizens will be able to vote. As part of their new service, the High Commission for Elections will soon re-launch its website. “This is a step forward for us as Egyptians,” Mohamed Ezabi told Bikyamasr.com “It gives me hope that the parliamentary elections may be run fair after all.”
