2020 polls: 61,000 voters with poor fingerprints to go through facial verification

The Electoral Commission has said some 61,086 voters who were part of those captured in the just-ended registration exercise, fall under the trauma category – meaning, their fingerprints could not be captured by the electronic system.

This means, they would have to go through facial verification on the day of the general elections before they can vote.

At a press conference in Accra on Friday, 7 August 2020, the Deputy Chair of the EC, Dr Eric Bossman Asare, said: “In the course of the registration, the Commission identified some applicants who have lost most or some of their finger imprints, making it extremely difficult for their fingerprints to be captured for verification purposes”.

“The reasons for this are several but they are largely rooted in the kinds of occupations of some applicants”, he noted.

“For these applicants, their faces will be verified during the election to establish their identities”, he said.

He added: “This is the facial recognition that the Commission has been talking about”.

In both real and nominal terms, Dr Asare said the Upper East region leads with 9,137 cases constituting 1.42% of the total voters registered.

He said with the exception of Ahafo, all the regions are in four digits.

Regional breakdown

WESTERN - 2,742

WESTERN NORTH - 1,224

CENTRAL - 2,484

GREATER ACCRA - 7,092

VOLTA - 5,873

OTI - 1,586

EASTERN - 3,162

ASHANTI - 7,625

BONO - 3,009

AHAFO - 799

BONO EAST - 2,802

SAVANNAH - 3,045

NORTHERN - 4,632

NORTH EAST - 1,557

UPPER EAST - 9,137

UPPER WEST - 4,317

NATIONAL TOTAL - 61,086