Limited Voters Registration: Getting Serial Numbers Of BVRs Unnecessary – Dep EC Chair
byNews Africa Gh-
The Electoral Commission has said it is unnecessary to furnish the National Democratic Congress (NDC) with the serial numbers of the Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) kits used during the limited voters' registration.
According to the Deputy Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Dr Eric Bossman Asare, aside from being a security risk, all information on the registration and voters' register is made available to every political party.
Speaking to JoyNews’ Evans Mensah on PM Express, he said that if EC could provide the serial numbers, the NDC would not get separate information from the one it makes available.
“Before we begin the registration exercise, there is a report we call the start of day report. We print and give to the agents of the political parties. When we conclude, we also have what we call the end-of-day report, which we also make available to the political parties. So the figures we even share with the parties have those same figures.”
“Last year we gave the NDC the provisional register. We also gave the NDC the final register. After this registration, we are going to give them a provisional register.
"And when we finish with the exhibition, before the election, we are going to give them a final register. So when you have all these registers, I think it will be enough to check whether there have been any discrepancies,” he noted.
Dr Bossman Asare added that with all this information, any discrepancies should be easy to spot and correct if needed.
“So I think that the idea that the NDC wants to get the serial numbers to be able to track, is much ado about nothing. It's not going to yield any different outcome. The serial numbers are so unique and it's like the heart of the work we are doing.”
“Once we can make the serial numbers available, then what you are even implying is that we should give our database, all the codes and everything to the political party,” Dr Bossman Asare added.
This comes after the NDC requested the serial numbers of Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) kits deployed for the Limited Voters Registration Exercise.
The party explained that acquiring the serial numbers of all the BVR kits used in the limited registration process will help the party “to track, identify and match every data emanating from a specific district or electoral area.”
“The serial numbers will also help us track all unauthorised personnel who will operate the BVR kit in an electoral area,” they indicated.
But the EC turned down the request citing security reasons, the EC emphasised the critical role of BVR Kits in the electoral process, highlighting their unique serial numbers essential for generating activation codes and tracking their location and movement.
Hence, divulging these serial numbers to external parties, including political entities like the NDC, poses a significant risk to the security and integrity of registration processes.
The NDC later claimed to have gotten the serial numbers of every BVR being used for the exercise. But, the EC vehemently denied those claims.
Speaking on Joy FM’s SMS, the Director of Electoral Services at the EC, Dr. Serebour Quaicoe, noted that no one can acquire the BVR kits’ serial numbers without the Commission’s approval.
He added that the serial numbers of the BVRs cannot help track the number of registered voters.
Meanwhile, Dr Bossman assured that the EC has consistently been transparent with the data on the voter register and providing the data from the limited registration before, during and after the exercise.
“I think as of yesterday, we had registered 302,000. You should be able to add this number to what we have on the roll. After the registration, hopefully, we'll get about 650,000."
"We add to the 17.9 (total number of voters), and we are hitting about 18.4. If you are a party and have all these figures, you should have a fair idea of the total numbers that have been registered.”
“So in that event, the numbers are not adding up. You should be able to alert the EC that 'your registration, you got these numbers. How come I'm seeing this?' The idea of the serial numbers is you are not going to get anything,” Dr Bossman Asare added.
