RSI, the Russian distributor that has won the government tender to provide the hardware, has already ordered 200 billion rubles ($42 million) worth of hardware and software from Compaq, Epson, Hewlett Packard, Novell, 3M, Microsoft and Symantec for the system. Compaq will provide most of the workstations for the system.
Designed by Voskhod, a Moscow institute, the computerized system has been ordered by Russia's Central Electoral Commission.
The new computerized vote-counting system will not be completely in place until the first half of 1996. Most of it, however, will be ready for parliamentary elections scheduled for December 1995.
Presidential elections are scheduled for June 1996.
Overall, 5,000 workstations will be used at a regional level to compile voting databases and record the total ballots placed at local polling stations.
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