The Technical Secretariat for Electoral Administration (STAE) this week signed the contract with the Artes Letras/Lexton consortium, which was awarded the public tender to import the voter registration material, according to the Center for Public Integrity (CIP).

CIP says that the consortium had proposed October 10 as the deadline for signing the contract so that it could begin the process of producing and importing the material so that voter registration could begin by April 20 or July 20, depending on the means of transport to be used (air or sea).

The CIP document also states that the contract should have been signed in September, but this didn't happen because the government hadn't yet transferred the amount to STAE's account.

Although it has not been confirmed by the National Electoral Commission (CNE), the source we have been quoting knows that Artes Gráficas, a company belonging to the Grupo Académica of brothers Feizal and Rafik Sidat, has subcontracted Laxton, a Dutch company with offices in several countries, to produce and import equipment for the census.