At present, official statistics availed by the National Electoral Commission (NEC) show that there are some 20 million registered voters on the Permanent National Voters Register (PNVR) in Tanzania Mainland and Zanzibar out of the total population of about 45 million.
Cases of missing names of eligible voters, appearance of names of people long known to be dead as well as minors on the voters' register, are among issues that have touched raw nerves of politicians and concerned citizens of this country. There were also some incidents where voters deliberately registered more than once.
Before the year 2004, the exercise of registering voters was so disorganized. It was after that period that the National Electoral Commission (NEC) introduced the Permanent National Voters Register (PNVR), which was used in the General Election in 2005.
Despite the new system in which voters were issued with voting cards bearing a photo and other particulars, complaints still marred the system since it is manually operated, giving room for shortcomings. It is in realization of the above that NEC is now mulling over introduction of Biometric Voters Registration (BVR), ahead of General Election in 2015. Biometrics or biometric authentication refers to the identification of humans by their characteristics or traits.
Biometric technology can be used to store unique physical characteristics, including fingerprints and facial scans of voters in a database for identification and thus solve election-related problems that have plagued most African countries. During a recent meeting between NEC officials and representatives of 40 political parties with permanent registration, the electoral commission hinted that it would start registering voters through the biometric system to be used in the forthcoming elections in 2015.
The meeting was convened to, among others, inform the political parties on the schedule for by-elections in Chambani constituency as well as elections for local councils in 26 wards slated for June 16, this year. Speaking at the meeting, the Vice-Chairman of NEC, Judge (Rtd) Hamid Mahmoud Hamid, clarified, however, that the new system will only be used for registering voters and not for voting purposes.
The Head of PNVR and ICT at NEC, Dr Sisti Cariah, said the commission will collaborate with the National Identification Authority (NIDA) in order to reduce costs since the latter is currently doing the same in its national identification project. "There are about 12 features which can be used to capture data through biometric but we will use three features namely facial, finger prints and signatures," Dr Cariah, who is also the Deputy Secretary of NEC, explained.
The explanation by the NEC officials followed inquiries by politicians at the meeting on how the new technology would be applied given its setback in some African countries in which it had been implemented. Almost all participants at the meeting took the electoral commission to task on updating of the PNVR, noting that some would-be voters are denied their constitutional rights to vote.
The NEC Act stipulates that the PNVR should be updated twice between General Elections but there have been concerns that such a period does not give room to new voters who attain the required age for voting in that timeframe. "There is a big number of youngsters, who are denied their constitutional rights during by-elections conducted in some constituencies," charged Mr Sam Ruhuza, Secretary General of NCCRMageuzi.
Mr Ruhuza, adds: "Imagine someone who was below 18 years in 2010 but has at present reached that age and would want to vote in byelections like that of Chambani but would not have that chance due to the weaknesses in updating the PNVR." Responding to the concerns raised by the NCCR-Mageuzi officials, the Commissioner of NEC, Prof Amoni Chaligha, said constant registration of voters will only become operation when the NEC Act is amended.
"It is true that there are some voters, who are left out but this can be solved when we are empowered to have representatives at grass-roots level and when the NEC legislation is amended to that effect," Prof Chaligha elaborated. The by-election in Chambani follows the death of the area MP, the late Salim Hemed Hamis (CUF), who succumbed to heart attack in March, this year. The election of the councillors on the other hand, is also due to deaths, resignation, sacking or defection from one party to another.
Meanwhile, Prof Chaligha also ruled out a possibility of postponing the byelections until the PNVR is updated. The suggestion was aired by the President of TADEA, Mr John Chipaka. Dr Cariah had earlier told the gathering that the process to update the register were in final stages likely to be implemented in the near future while another update will be done between June and September 2015.
Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda is also on record for supporting the biometric voters registration during the ongoing session of the National Assembly in the designated capital of Dodoma. However, the Premier had warned that the NEC must have a back-up system in place in case of malfunctioning of the BVR as it happened recently in Kenya and Ghana.
"I believe NEC is doing this in good faith", observed Mr Pinda when responding to the Leader of the Official Opposition in the House, Mr Freeman Mbowe (Hai- Chadema), who had expressed reservations over the move to introduce the system, which he said had failed elsewhere. The Premier went on to assure Mr Mbowe, who is also the National Chairman of Chadema, that the new system would help reduce complaints over delays that were rife in the old manual system used by NEC.
---
Autor(en)/Author(s): Alvar Mwakyusa
Quelle/Source: AllAfrica, 28.05.2013
Bitte besuchen Sie/Please visit:
