Speaking in Dar es Salaam the ZEC deputy chairperson Joyce Kazembe commended Tanzanian National Electoral Commission (NEC) for overseeing peaceful elections in Tanzania.
She added that Zimbabwe was optimistic that Tanzania would succeed in its endeavour to ensure electoral efficiency by introducing a biometric system.
Ms Kazembe said Zimbabwe was planning to acquire a similar system ahead of this year’s general election.
But analysys expressed doubts whether this will ever see the light of the day due to mounting cash problems and the squabbling between rival principal partners.
Plans are afoot to introduce biometric voter registration ahead of the Tanzanian 2015 General Election, the country's National Electoral Commission (NEC) said.
The NEC chairman, retired Judge Damian Lubuva, told a delegation from the Zimbabwe Electorial Commission (ZEC) that a decision had been made to put the system in place before the elections.“Yes we intend to introduce the biometric electoral system,” he said.
Kenya’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) introduced the system ahead of the March 4 elections, but it was replete with technical glitches.
There were multiple complaints at the widespread failure of electronic biometric voting registration (BVR) kits introduced by the IEBC to frustrate potential rigging.
The BVR failure meant stations had to resort to paper records and manual registration, which considerably slowed down the voting process.
Biometric technology can be used to store unique physical characteristics including fingerprints and facial scans of voters in a database for identification.Mr Justice Lubuva said NEC was planning to float tenders for the acquisition of biometric electoral system, adding that its value was yet to be established.
Judge Damian Lubuva (picture) said NEC also planned to invite donors to fund the procurement and installation of the system.
The NEC chairman refuted claims that the commission was not transparent in the process of acquiring the system. “The whole decision was made by the government, which is our main stakeholder. There is no need of hiding the process from the public. Everything will be known after we complete the whole tendering procedure.”
Mr Justice Lubuva said the system should be in place before the 2015 elections if everything goes according to plan.
Utilising advanced biometric technology would lend accountability and transparency to the electoral system, he added.
“Adapting a cost effective and simple technology is a good way of solving the many election-related problems plaguing many African countries,” Mr Justice Lubuva said.
Mr Justice Lubuva said NEC was independent, and was not being directed or influenced by anybody.
“We are working professionally, contrary to what some of our detractors are claiming. We are here to serve Tanzanians, and not any individual or specific group,” he said.
Biometric technology is said to be one of the most reliable and secure methods that can be used in an election, it is the study of unique human features, which are then used to verify identity.
Usually, these unique features being used are the fingerprints, iris scans, facial features, voice recognition and even behavioural biometrics such as gait, posture and signature.
Biometrics technology, on the other hand, is the conversation of those unique human characteristics into computerized automatic identification of people.
Points of clarification: Electronic Systems Used in the 2013 Kenyan Elections
Three different and unique sets of technology were used in preparation for and execution of the 2013 Kenyan elections.
Below is an outline of each technology used, the final product and the supplier of the technology.
- Biometric Voter Registration (BVR)
As indicated in the name, the BVR system was used to register voters in advance of the elections and to prepare a Certified Voter Registry, which produced a manual list of the voters. Contrary to what has been reported in some media outlets, the BVR equipment was not used on or after Election Day.
Procurement of the BVR system was begun through tender # "IEBC O8/2011-2012 - Supply and Delivery of Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) Solution". The tender called for the supply of a BVR system and 9000 BVR "kits" to be used to register voters at registration centres throughout Kenya. The tender asked that the kits contain a laptop loaded with specialized and secure database software for voter registration and periphery equipment.
The IEBC cancelled the tender (terminated July 2012) stating irregularities in the tendering process. Given short timelines to prepare this advanced registration system, several countries were instead approached to support the sale of a BVR system through direct procurement using a government-to-government arrangement. Canada was selected to supply the equipment.
In order to meet tight deadlines for voter registration, the scope of the project was increased and IEBC requested the number of BVR kits be increased to 15,000 which meant an incremental increase in the price. The appropriate number of kits, adequate training and technical support was provided by Morpho Canada and their principal, SafranMorpho based in France.
The project was unrolled within all deadlines and approximately 14.3 million Kenyan voters were register by the December 18 deadline. An electronic database containing a Certified Voter Registry, which produced a manual list of the voters free from duplicates, was prepared as was a printable version of the manual list of voters (i.e. the manual list used on voting day). The list was vetted and approved by the IEBC and registered political parties in Kenya.
The use of BVR has provided Kenya with the largest and cleanest registry in the country's history. It removed the 'dead voters' that plagued earlier registries and prevented people from registering twice. The creation of the registry using BVR now allows the IEBC to link to the national database of deaths and new identity card registrations to keep the voter registry up to date, something few countries in the continent are able to do and a substantial improvement for this and all future elections in Kenya.
Through close collaboration with and excellent support of the IEBC, the BVR project was delivered on time, on budget and free from technical malfunctions.
The CEO and Chairman of the IEBC, in their press conferences at the BOMAS of Kenya on March 5, stated that the technology that was successfully used for voter registration in late 2012 was different and entirely separate from the technology used to identify voters at polling stations.
- Electronic Voter Identification System (EVIS)
The EVIS (often called the poll book) is a piece of equipment used on voting day to biometrically identify voters at polling stations.
The EVIS was acquired through a second tender # "IEBC/14/2011-2012 - Supply, Delivery, Installation, Configuration, Training, Testing and Commissioning of Electronic Voter Identification Devices" (Closed July 5th, 2012). The IEBC called for a portable handheld device to biometrically identify voters using biometric data collected during the registration period. The poll books contained the data collected during the BVR process, but difficulties in connecting users to that data were a function of the EVIS equipment, not of the BVR data contained within them and also available through the manual register referred to above.
The tender followed through to completion and a South African firm, Face Technology, was chosen by the IEBC to supply 35,000 devices for use on Election Day. The devices were allegedly manufactured in Asia (China).
Given very short timelines, a sufficient number of handheld devices were not available on the market and a number of the poll books were substituted with laptops attached to fingerprint readers. According to the Election Observation Group (ELOG): “in about 8.0% of the streams observed electronic poll books were either missing or malfunctioning as at 11.30 am, by 8.30 pm 55.1% of the polling streams observed that electronic poll books failed to function properly” (www.elog.or.ke) Apparently the devices encountered battery problems.
None of the equipment utilized in the Canadian-supplied BVR system was used on voting day.
- Electronic Results Transmission System
A third technology was used to transmit provisional vote results from the polling stations to the IEBC National Tallying Centre at the BOMAS of Kenya, involving 32,000 specially configured cell phone devices to electronically send provisional vote results from polling stations to a dedicated IEBC server. The project was developed in-house by IEBC with several technical areas subcontracted to local firms.
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Quelle/Source: The Zimbabwe Mail, 16.04.2013
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