No upgrade made on BVR kits – NPP contests

The opposition New Patriotic Party(NPP) is contesting the extent of upgrade undertaken by the Electoral Commission on the new Biometric Registration Kits (BVR kits) for the impending limited Voter registration.

According to the NPP, nothing has been done to improve the machines as the election management body claims, a situation the opposition party contends could still threaten a free and fair election.

Director of Elections for the NPP, Martin Agyei-Mensah Korsah told Accra-based Citi FM there is nothing significant that reflects an upgrade when the device was experimented in their presence.

That aside, he said the EC’s resolve in sampling 20 centres for the pilot exercise is problematic because such circumstance cannot be a true representation of how well the device would function in the crucial elections.

“There is no clear action to deal with the problem that will give this country a free and fair election” he added.

But the Acting Director of Public Affairs at the EC, Christian Owusu Parry in a reaction to the NPP claims said there are material evidence of an improvement in the efficiency of the device.

The new software secured, he said, has corrected the freezing of the device at short intervals and now the new upgrade has boosted the BVR machines to operate normal.

In addition, he said the upgrade will also enable capture what form of IDs used by a voter.

The EC following what it says is the successful upgrade of the BVR kits for the 2016 elections will undertake a pilot registration of voters to test-run the upgraded device in selected polling stations in all the ten regions on Saturday 12th March from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm.