By William Yaw
Owusu
Wednesday,
January 06, 2016
The Electoral Commission (EC) has admitted there are cases of
multiple registration in the controversial Biometric Voter Register (BVR), but
says there is no cause for alarm.
“As stated in several fora by the commission, there are a few cases
of multiple registrations still in the register,” the EC said in its response
to the opposition New Patriotic Party’s (NPP’s) request for the compilation of
an entirely new register for this year’s general election. However, the
commission recently rejected the call for a new electoral roll.
Insignificant
Figure
The EC said that 2,096 multiple registrations as alleged by the NPP,
represented a tiny 0.02% of the voter population of over 14 million and that that
could not form the basis for an entirely new register.
“In our view, 2,096 alleged multiple registrations out of over 14
million entries are in line with duplicates expected to pass through the
system. A percentage of less than 0.02% should not be the basis for the
replacement of the entire register,” the EC insisted.
Biometric Data
Interestingly, during the landmark presidential election petition at
the Supreme Court in 2013, Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, the immediate past chairman
of the EC, said under cross-examination that it was not possible for multiple
registrations since the register was biometrically compiled.
EC’s
Demonstration
According to the EC, “It has been demonstrated that the system was
capable of removing over 150,000 multiple registrations from the register,”
adding, “it was further demonstrated that there is a clear, multi-level
transparent procedure of adjudication when humans check the machines’ findings.”
The commission said it was also demonstrated that“there are very few
cases of multiple registrations which resulted from either human error, system
allowed error, margin or insufficient biometric data that is where no fingerprints were captured
or low quality fingerprints.”
No Challenge
“The magnitude of multiple registrations in the current register is
very acceptable by any standard estimated at hundreds in the entire register of
14.8 million people. The register does not have the multiple registration
challenge that is being alleged.”
The EC said that the
duplicates had come about due to what it called ‘accuracy level of AFIS (the
biometric software) engine is 99.98% (as per specifications),’‘Insufficient
Biometric data (voters who registered with less than 6 fingers),’ ‘low quality
fingerprints’ as well as ‘human error
during adjudication processes.’
New Programmes
According to the EC, it had introduced programmes to eliminate the multiple
registrations, including installation of a de-duplication system that matches
biometric and biographic data saying, “this ensures that duplicates of voters
with no (or insufficient) biometric data are detected during exhibition of the
register.”
The commission said it had upgraded the AFIS (software) and voter registration
systems as well as established a better adjudication process with the assistance
of political parties at the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC).
Multiple Voter
ID
The commission dismissed entirely the NPP’s allegation that there
were also double and multiple registrations with multiple voter identity (ID)
numbers saying, “This is a false allegation.”
On the issue of same registration details and photographs at
different polling stations, the EC said, “This is a clear case of multiple
registrations with systems in place and appropriate facilities to detect and
expunge.”
Residential
Addresses
On ‘No residential addresses on register,’ the commission responded,
“The EC collects residential addresses of all applicants during registration.
The aim for collecting this data is to make it available to political parties
and the public for purposes of campaigning and cleaning of the roll.”
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