Romania votes 'yes' again; ballot-stuffing, lack of transparency
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started by: Ars AraneaArs Aranea
on: 1206582218|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
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Romania voted 'yes' to adopting OOXML as an ISO standard, with 15 votes for it, 6 against and 5 abstentions. There is strong suspicion of ballot-stuffing and the Romanian Standardization Organization has so far refused to offer any information other than the vote distribution.
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Romania votes 'yes' again; ballot-stuffing, lack of transparency
Ars AraneaArs Aranea 1206582218|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Romania voted 'yes' to adopting OOXML as an ISO standard in the March 23 meeting of CT210, the technical comittee in charge, part of ASRO, the Romanian Standardization Association. The vote was spread 15 for, 6 against, 5 abstentions.

Members of the committee have reportedly multiplied suddenly only a short time before the vote, CT210 growing from 12 members (who have been members for a long time) to 26 or 27. Many of the new members are Microsoft business partners.

ASRO is so far refusing to offer any further information on the subject, citing internal regulations that prevent it and any technical commitee members from disclosing any such information. CT210 members have also refrained from making public statements since it is not clear what the fallout would be if they did so.

More details here.

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unfold Romania votes 'yes' again; ballot-stuffing, lack of transparency by Ars AraneaArs Aranea, 1206582218|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
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Re: Romania votes 'yes' again; ballot-stuffing, lack of transparency
Ars AraneaArs Aranea 1206625404|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

The linked article has been updated with the CT210 member list and evidence supporting their affiliations to Microsoft.

Of the 27 committee members, 18 were Microsoft-friendly. The entire join-at-the-last-minute wave was Microsoft friendly. We're talking Golden and Certified Partners or co-dependent businesses, such as antivirus makers or Microsoft solution providers.

Midway through the wave, ASRO stopped sending already joined members notifications about new members. So the last 6 and the total count of 27 were thus revealed only at the meeting.

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unfold Re: Romania votes 'yes' again; ballot-stuffing, lack of transparency by Ars AraneaArs Aranea, 1206625404|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
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Re: Romania votes 'yes' again; ballot-stuffing, lack of transparency
Ars AraneaArs Aranea 1206648307|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

The actual votes were finally and eventually published as well. The linked article has been updated to reflect this piece of information.

Who voted in favor of adopting OOXML? 11 out of the 13 last-minute members; and 14 out of the 18 Microsoft-friendly members (who also just happen to include all the 11 late-comers who voted in favor).

Representatives of public and academic institutions abstained. Fujitsu-Siemens abstained. Same did a neutral company, whose representative is a valued contributor to CT210's actual useful work.

IBM and two outspoken OOXML critics have voted against it.

A Microsoft Certified Partner, who had been on the commitee since before the OOXML saga, also chose to vote against it. If they did this in order to avoid compromising their history with CT210, I applaud them.

The only real surprise were two Microsoft business partners, among the ones who joined at the last minute, who voted against OOXML. I can only hope that it was a genuine decision and not orchestrated as a preemptive strike against accusations of ballot stuffing. It's not like those 2 votes could have affected the outcome anyway.

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unfold Re: Romania votes 'yes' again; ballot-stuffing, lack of transparency by Ars AraneaArs Aranea, 1206648307|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
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Re: Romania votes 'yes' again; ballot-stuffing, lack of transparency
rsandursandu 1206588721|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

For Romanian readers, please see first-hand details on http://rsandu.myblog.ro, here:

http://rsandu.myblog.ro/post/2008/03/27/n-rom-nia-se-voteaz-din-nou-asupra-microsoft-ooxml

Răzvan

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unfold Re: Romania votes 'yes' again; ballot-stuffing, lack of transparency by rsandursandu, 1206588721|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
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