2011 Elections: Voilà extends its SMS strategy and initiates a fundraiser for the benefit of the two (2) presidential candidates.

1. PRESS RELEASE<br />2011 Elections: Voilà extends its SMS strategy and initiates a fundraiser for the benefit of the two (2) presidential candidates.<br />Port-au-Prince, Thursday, February 18th, 2011. - Following a request from the Conseil National des Télécommunications (CONATEL), and in view of achieving the second round of the elections, Voilà develops a messaging application (SMS), the first of its kind in the country, which will allow the Conseil Electoral Provisoire (CEP) to share information with the public on the locations of polling stations, with the aim of facilitating and encouraging broad participation of the electorate in the March 20th elections. This practice, characterized by the support of innovative technology, was very successful in the parliamentary elections of 2009, and will be repeated for the second rounds. The CEP has already taken the necessary steps to re-implementing the SMS solution. <br />To do this, the CEP has called upon the services of a foreign consultant who should come soon to Haiti to relocate the server and reconfigure the service. This solution will be functional before February 20th. For now, Voilà's technical teams are mobilized pending the finalization of the CEP. Voilà assures that its solution should be quickly ready following the CEP’s solution in two (2) days, or at the very latest before the end of February. The success of the SMS service has also been expanded to the call center installed by Voilà during the first round of the elections, allowing voters to find answers and information relating to polling stations. For the second round of elections, the CEP will also have its call center with a minimum of twenty (20) lines to help many more voters identify their polling stations. <br />These decisions demonstrate, once again, the determination continually shown by Voilà to support all initiatives that highlight the interests of the population, further illustrating our active solidarity with the Haitian people, which give meaning to our slogan quot;
Nou Se Ayiti!”With that in mind, Voilà is also proud to announce that it has initiated a fundraiser that will help finance the services of representatives of both candidates during the final phase of elections. The funds raised will allow the two presidential candidates to manage the distribution and placement of their agents throughout the nation’s land. As a Haitian company, Voilà hopes that the day before March 20th the national environment be conducive to the holding of credible and transparent elections, serving as the fundamental bases of democracy and the periodic renewal of the political leadership of our country.Today, Voilà calls the sister companies of the private sector to participate in this initiative. The company has requested that the Forum Economique du Secteur Privé (FESP), of which Voilà is a founding member, be the center for collecting and distributing funds to both presidential campaigns. Voilà relies on the civic participation of the private business sector to promote a transparent atmosphere so as to have successful elections and thus promote the legitimacy of the new leaders of the country. To start this fundraiser, Voilà sets the tone by making a substantial deposit of four million gourdes ( $ 100,000 into this special account. By this gesture Voilà wants to encourage other private companies to follow the lead to allow the two presidential candidates to have better control over the progress of the second round, and to increase the election’s credibility vis-à-vis the population which awaits for its interests and well-being to be taken into account.<br />With this action Voilà intends to provide the two presidential candidates with the means to ensure the vigilance of agents to control the electoral fraud phenomenon and other malfunctions that have so often negatively characterized the Haitian electoral process.<br /> For the President of the Voilà Foundation, Mr. Bernard Fils-Aime, ''Voilà is known in Haiti not only for its reliable network but also for its ability to innovate. This technological tool, SMS, that we put at the disposal of the CEP, as well as the fundraising that we are organizing with the private business sector for the benefit of both candidates to help them finance their agents, confirm the degree of our civic responsibility in Haiti. quot;
Voilà hopes that Haitians go massively to the polls on Sunday, March 20th to elect their president, their deputies and senators at the second round. <br />Ultimately, it will be up to the CEP, the national and international observers and to the victorious and defeated candidates of tomorrow, to assume their share of the contract with dignity. <br /># # # # # <br />ABOUT VOILA<br />Voilà is a leading mobile operator in Haiti, providing high quality mobile services at affordable price to more than one million subscribers. Since its inception 10 years ago, it has invested more than $200 million in Haiti. Voilà has over 500 local staff and provides indirect employment to more than 25,000 Haitians through local micro-entrepreneurs who sell refill minutes and phone calls. Voilà is a subsidiary of Trilogy International Partners LLC, a privately held company based in Bellevue, WA. In December 2009, the company received the U.S. State Department's prestigious quot;
Award for Business Excellencequot;
from the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. In early 2009, Voilà was chosen among the ten finalists by the Organization of American States as a corporate citizen in the Americas. For more information about the company, please visit the website: HYPERLINK quot;
http://www.voila.ht/quot;
quot;
_blankquot;
www.voila.ht. <br />CONTACTS: Emmanuel Jean-Francois Public Relations Officer, Voilàejeanfrancois@voila.ht +509-3441-0723 <br /> <br />