The Electoral Commission has announced it will procure a new Biometric Voter Management System as well as compile a new Voters Register for the 2020 general elections.
The Commission says it took the decision to procure the new Biometric Voter Management System on the advice of its IT team and external consultants “to the effect that, it would be prudent to acquire a new system rather than refurbish the current system.”
Addressing a press conference at its headquarters in Accra on Tuesday, December 31, 2019, the EC’s Deputy Chairman in charge of Operations, Mr. Samuel Tettey, said it would make more economic and operational sense to acquire the new system than to keep the current system and refurbish them at a high cost of frequent replacement of failing parts and renewal of warranties.
Besides, he said the current BVRs are end-of-life, meaning that no components are available to repair items, including laptops.
Justifying the need for a new Biometric Voters Register for #Election2020, Mr. Tettey said the present register is bloated yet there has not been any effective means of cleaning it. The bloated register thus needlessly increases the cost of elections as materials must be procured for an otherwise high voter population that does exist, leading also to waste. Besides, its continued use will greatly affect the credibility of the election.
He said the system to be used to compile a new register, will include facial verification that will eliminate manual verification and ensure credibility. He discounted concerns that the time was too short to compile a new voters register, and claims that a new register will amount to a waste of scarce resources.
graphic.com.gh
