The Deputy Chairperson of the Electoral Commission Dr. Bossman Eric Asare says his outfit is planning on adding a facial verification feature to our electoral process to tackle issues with the fingerprint.
This will be part of the EC’s plan to compile a new voters’ register.
The EC has made it clear that they have had several issues with manual verification and in the just ended district level elections the manual verification figures were almost 0.6%.
He further stated that one of the reasons to adopt a facial verification is the large numbers that will turn up for the general elections, he said using a manual verification could cause problems.
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The EC currently does not have the facial recognition feature and he disclosed that people’s pictures will have to be taken for this system because the old pictures of people would not pass the test.
“The facial is an add-on to the system. All those with their fingerprint will be the primary source of identification and during voting If your fingerprint cannot be captured in the system, we use the facial verification”
“We are going to migrate all the data to the new one and when people come all that will be taken is their facial identification,” he spoke on the Joy Super Morning Show.
Mr. Asare also said there are several reasons why the EC is compiling a new register and urged Ghanaians to comply so the process moves swiftly.
However, this decision to compile a new voters’ register has been met with fierce resistance from some political parties.
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They argue that the decision is ill-timed, a wasteful expedition and defies logic even though the EC believes a new register will be more credible and efficient than the existing one.
