[ 2014-07-22 ]

Biometric alone can’t address challenges of electoral system – Afari-Gyan
The Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC), Dr
Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, has stated that the biometric
technology alone cannot address the challenges of
any electoral system.

According to him, machines could not undertake
certain functions during election activities, such
as the detection of minors and non-nationals in
the registration of voters.

Sharing Ghana’s experience in biometric
technology during elections at a conference in
Accra yesterday, Dr Afari-Gyan told the
participants that the EC had to employ other
measures to prevent foreigners and minors from
voting, adding that “the machine will not solve
all our problems”.

The three-day conference, which brought together
participants from other African countries, will
discuss the sustainability of biometric technology
in elections in Africa.

Citing some instances of the breakdown of
biometric machines during the registration of
voters and elections in 2012, Dr Afari-Gyan said
the biometric identification machine failed to
identify voters whose names were in the voters
register.


He said some of the machines broke down due to the
volume of work, adding that the internal battery
of the biometric kit ran out very fast “and the
internal battery of the laptop could not support
the process alone”.

“It is a multi-component kit and so if one
device does not work, it affects the whole
election process,” he said.

Challenges during exercise
During the piloting of the biometric voting and
registration system, Dr Afari-Gyan said, some
centres had challenges capturing the photographs
of women in veil but the EC overcame the
challenges through community education.

He said the software used during the 2012
elections made it difficult for officials to
locate certain districts, a situation which wasted
a lot of time.

Another challenge was the invasion of some polling
centres by heavily built men, popularly called
“machomen”, during the voters registration
exercise.

“Some thugs took the law into their own hands
and invaded some centres to disrupt the
process,” he said

Source - Daily Graphic

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