OOXML seems to be through… [updated]

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“Counting the countries, it is pretty certain that the votes are enough to get OOXML through this vote.” said Pieter Hintjens on the Noooxml-mailing list. A press release for tomorrow has been prepared:

Geneva, 1 April 2008. The International Organization for
Standardization announced at a press conference that its processes are
“broken” and “need radical reform”. ISO president Håkan Murby told
journalists that “the Microsoft OOXML process was a near-disaster and
we want to make sure such a thing never happens again.”

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[Update: On the OpenDoc mailing list Michiel Leenaars posted the official results which should probably be published by ISO on April, 2nd:

P-Members voting: 24 in favour out of 32 = 75 % (requirement >= 66.66%)
(P-Members having abstained are not counted in this vote.)

Member bodies voting: 10 negative votes out of 71 = 14 % (requirement <= 25%)

Approved

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In the meantime, Steve Pepper, the chairman of the Norwegian NB, formally protested against the “Yes”-vote of his country:

You will have been notified that Norway voted to approve OOXML in this ballot. This decision does not reflect the view of the vast majority of the Norwegian committee, 80% of which was against changing Norway’s vote from No with comments to Yes.

Because of this irregularity, a call has been made for an investigation by the Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Industry with a view to changing the vote.

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While a possible turn of this vote into “No” may have helped yesterday (while the Yes-votes where only 22/32, or 68,75%), it may not be enough after all today, since at least two more countries would have to protest to make a change. Not that there would not have been reported enough irregularities in other NBs, like for example in Germany, Romania, Poland and the list goes on.]