EC talks highly about new BVR kits against old

The Electoral Commission, Ghana (EC) says the performance of the new biometric voter registration (BVR) kits has justified its decision to discard the previous ones.

According to the Deputy Chairman in charge of Operations, Samuel Tettey, the speed of the new BVR equipment has seen increased registration at most centres just a week into the compilation of the new voter register.

“[This] is because they are robust, they are user-friendly and they are also fast,” Mr Tettey told journalists at a maiden encounter on Wednesday, July 8, 2020.

Six days into the exercise, which began on Tuesday, June 30, the Commission has registered 2,215,816 eligible voters.

A majority, Mr Tettey disclosed, used the Ghana Card as breeder documents for the registration .

Day 1 saw a total of 308,925 applicants registered.

Day 2 saw 403,340 persons being registered.

Day 3 had 436,905 persons registered across the country with Day 4 having 395,557 persons registered.

While the fifth day had 349,602 getting registered, 331,487 got registered on Day 6.

Mr Tettey admitted that the major challenge officers have so far grappled with at the registration centres is the non-compliance to the social distancing protocol in the fight against coronavirus.

But he said the equipment have worked beyond expectation after the controversy that surrounded the EC’s decision to overhaul the country’s biometric management system and procure new machines.

“This is a deviation of the past equipment which were characterised by faults.”

The exercise has gone into the second phase and so far 361,038 persons were registered on Day 7.

It is being carried out in clusters but scheduled to end on Thursday, August 6.