IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

The four-day operation is intended to guide the EC to identify shortcomings and make amends before the actual registration which is scheduled to take off towards the end of March.

The exercise, which ends tomorrow, is being carried out in two centres of each of the 10 regions of the country.

However, investigations undertaken by The New Statesman suggest that the ruling party, which has still not come to terms with biometric verification, is shifting the responsibility of funding the process to Ghana’s ‘development partners’.

The two-day testing of the process which is being organized by the Electoral Commission (EC) is taking place in some selected polling stations across the country.

The exercise according to the EC is aimed at ensuring the biometric machines are properly tested to avert any technical difficulties on voting day.

It said the electronic devices still had the records of the number of people who voted at each polling station.

Reacting to claims by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) that the EC had instructed its officials to set the machines to zero to destroy evidence which could aid the party to challenge the results of the elections at the Supreme Court, the Public Relations Officer of the commission, Mr Christian Owusu-Parry, said the machines had not been reset.

The exercise begun on Saturday March 24 and after 40 days of a fairly successful exercise, Statistics available by the end of the third phase of the exercise has it that about 10.5 million prospective voters have had their names registered and out of these about 8,121 cases of multiple registration involving 2,864 individuals had also been detected.

To be scrapped as used in the previous paragraph means that Ghana’s Electoral Commission (EC) will not use the 2008 voters register. An advert by the EC currently running in the media states in part that the EC “intends to use biometric technology to replace the existing Voters Register that was compiled in 2004 (emphasis ours).

He explained that the verification machines for the polls can only identify and verify eligible voters within a precise constituency.

Mr Gyabaah was answering questions on the special voting for security personnel at a meeting between Mr William Kwasi Aboah, Minister of the Interior, and some of the personnel, in Sunyani, as part of minister’s visit to the region.

According to Nana Addo, adding a verification system to the biometric voting process would help check cases of double voting, impersonation and several other electoral malpractices that crop up during elections.

According to Nana Addo, adding a verification system to the biometric voting process would help check cases of double voting, impersonation and several other electoral malpractices that crop up during elections.

He made the remarks in an interview with Citi News from Germany where he attended the “Africa Conference 2011”, as the Keynote Speaker on the theme: “Africa’s Role Model? Democracy and Elections in Ghana”.

What is however uncertain is the kind of biometric technology the Electoral Commission is buying into and whether the biometric register that will be created will be able to stop multiple voting. Biometric verification is any means by which a person can be uniquely identified by the evaluation of a biological trait such as fingerprints, hand geometry, earlobe geometry, retina and iris patterns, voice waves, DNA or signatures. Almost certainly, the Electoral Commission will be using the finger prints trait which is the oldest form of biometric verification. In its simple from biometric in verification mode means biometric data, is stored on a smart card allowing for almost instantaneous personal identification. These are already employed in some bank automatic teller machines allowing for recognition of cards so that people cannot exceed their withdrawal limit.

She said the training was in connection with the Vice President John Dramani Mahama's initiative to support persons with disabilities to have knowledge in ICT since that was what was driving the world at present.

Ms Frimpong was speaking at a durbar organized to interact with persons with disabilities to know their problems and find out how best they can be helped.

Professor Oheneba-Sakyi said this at the first congregation ceremony for distance education programme at the University of Ghana’s Institute of Continuing and Distance Education in Accra.

He said greater opportunities would be opened for post-graduate E-Learning programmes via online and other technology-mediated learning for the school’s educational entrepreneurs for lifelong learning.

The opportunities opened for the country is in the field of telecommunications, business, agriculture, education and internet services which should help speed up Ghana’s development process.

Like many countries around the world, Ghana has already demonstrated a strong capacity for growth in the ICT subsector – notably so in the area of mobile communication.

He expressed concern that the six months training programme in computer and mobile phone repairs were being conducted by the company free of charge but the youth in the region had failed to access such opportunity to upgrade theis skills.

The GeGov Project, an electronic platform designed to automate Business Registration and Tax Administration at the Registrar General’s Department (RGD) will alleviate the plight of people who want to register businesses but have to endure several bottlenecks embedded in the current manual system.

Until the biometric voting system is centralized, all the stop guard measures being proposed by political parties on how to maintain a credible voters’ register remains impotent. This was an observation made by the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party, Mr. Bernard Antwi- Boasiako.

The Electoral Commission (EC) opened a two-day public hearing on the voters’ register following series of petitions and calls from some political parties, civil society groups and a number of Ghanaians for a new voters’ register.

The Chartered Institute of Supply Chain Management (CISCM) has lauded government’s efforts at promoting electronic governance (E-egovernance) to enhance Ghana’s industrial revolution.

“As a nation, I am happy to observe that we are heading in the right direction, particularly with the systematic implementation of E-Governance that is the prime-mover of our quest to be part of the fourth industrial revolution,” the President of the CISCM, Mr Richard Obeng Okrah said in Accra.

Inaugurating a GH¢60,000.00 four-unit classroom block built for the Usifia Islamic Junior High School (JHS) in Kumasi, the MP said such a move would enable the youths to contribute meaningfully to the nation’s development process.

“The main challenges facing our nation today can be linked to our inability to praticalise ICT and bond it with technical and vocational skills training and development,” Mr James Gunu stressed.

The Deputy Minister for Works and Housing, Dr Prince Hamid Armah has underscored the pivotal role of urbanisation and smart cities in driving Ghana's sustainable development.

Addressing the audience at the Accra International Conference Centre on Wednesday, June 26, he highlighted the government's renewed commitment to inclusive and sustainable industrialisation.