Politics of Friday, 5 June 2020

Source: atinkaonline.com

EC debunks false reportage on limited turnout during pilot biometric voter register

EC Chair, Jean Mensa play videoEC Chair, Jean Mensa

The Electoral Commission of Ghana (EC) has debunked reports that the pilot exercise for the Biometric Voter Register recorded low turnouts due to a system failure.

According to the EC, the exercise went on smoothly at all the designated centres, except in the Western region where the BVR Kit developed a fault on the second day.

The exercise went on smoothly at all the designated centres, except in the Western region where the BVR Kit developed a fault on the second day.

A total of 1,990 applicants registered during a 2-day pilot exercise on the Biometric Voter Registration system in all the sixteen (16) regional capitals in the country, the Electoral Commission revealed.

According to the EC, 745 applicants registered on day 1 and 1,245 on day 2 of the exercise.

The Electoral Commission of Ghana (EC) started the piloting of the new voter registration exercise in some selected constituencies on Monday and ended on Tuesday.

The compilation of the new register will begin from late June 2020 and will be completed within 40 days.



The essence of the exercise was to evaluate the preparedness of the Commission for the upcoming voter registration exercise.

Amongst the metrics that were tested was the efficiency of the Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) kits and its adaptability to various operating conditions in various parts of the country.

The Commission also took the opportunity to evaluate the various mitigation measures it has put in place to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 disease during the registration period.

This leads to the suspension of the exercise in the Western region but afforded the Commission the opportunity to test its inbuilt processes of dealing with equipment breakdowns during the registration process.