A United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)-funded report has indicted the Electoral Commission (EC) and Superlock Technology Ltd (STL) over the handling of the biometric voter register (BVR).
According to the report, STL which was contracted by the EC to assist in the management of the biometric database used for the 2012 general elections, still controls the sensitive data.
[contextly_sidebar id=”uCuA13r3BwctA71lRtiQ0ONFXhP620Er”]The report stated that “the management of biometric database 16 has been outsourced to STL who was expected to train and fully hand over the system to the IT Department of the EC before the 2012 elections.”
“STL has not respected this component of the contract as at this assessment in August 2015. The implication is that the EC will be unable to conduct biometric registration without STL. STL has not been transparent with the officials of the IT department to enable the later to understand how the system functions even though STL officials are based in the IT Department of the EC,” the report explained.
The study, which is titled “Conduct of an Institutional Assessment for the development of a strategic plan for the electoral Commission of Ghana” was conducted between July and August 2015 and provides institutional assessment of the EC, looking at the commission in the execution of its mandate.
The UNDP report also stated that the “the electoral process in Ghana is faced with a number of challenges such as electoral fraud, violence, bloated register, and intimidation of election officials.”
Click here for the full preliminary report
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By: Raymond Acquah/citifmonline.com/Ghana