Assembly polls: BVDs functioned effectively – CODEO

The Biometric Verification Devices (BVDs) functioned well in almost all polling stations during the just-ended district assembly elections, the Coalition for Domestic Elections Observers (CODEO), has said.

The polls began at 7 a.m. and ended at 5 p.m. across the country on Tuesday, 17 December 2019.

CODEO, in a statement, said its “observer reports indicated that at 99.23% of polling stations, ballot papers were stamped with the validating stamp. This was, however, not the case at some 0.77% of polling stations.

“Biometric Verification Devices (BVDs) functioned well at 93.29% of polling stations, while 6.71% of polling stations encountered instances where the BVDs failed to function at some point in time on election day.

“At 61.11% of polling stations, observers indicated that no eligible voter had their fingerprints rejected by the Biometric Verification Devices.

“At approximately 30% of polling stations, a few (1-5) eligible voters had their fingerprints rejected by the BVDs. Such polling stations included Lutterodt International School, Sogakope polling station in South Tongu; D.A Primary School, Aflukakpoe in North Tongu; Methodist Primary School, Aboabo in Adansi Asokwa; D/A Primary School, Fomena in Adansi North; and Dispensary polling station at Kumbungu.

“At 95% of polling stations, voters who had challenges with biometric verification were allowed to go through manual verification to be able to vote.

“Four in 10 observers (41.71%) reported ‘minor’ problems encountered during the voting processes, while close to six in 10 (57.36%) observers said they did not encounter any problems.

Observers reported ‘major’ problems encountered during the voting processes at 0.90% of polling stations.”