The flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has stated that the fifty million cedis needed by the Electoral Commission for the verification system of the Biometric Voter’s register should not be an excuse by the EC not to implement the system.
According to Nana Addo, adding a verification system to the biometric voting process would help check cases of double voting, impersonation and several other electoral malpractices that crop up during elections. Speaking to Citi News from Germany where he is attending the “Africa Conference 2011”, as the Keynote Speaker was speaking on the theme: “Africa’s Role Model? Democracy and Elections in Ghana”.
The NPP flagbearer cited neighbouring Ivory Coast as a clear example of a country that employed the biometric voting system but fell short of placing an apt verification system in place at the various polling stations.
“We don’t want the situation that happened in Cote d’Ivoire, they registered the people and at the of the day they allowed thousands of lives displaced, half a million people resulting in a great deal of ups and downs because the verification was not part of their system, none of us in Ghana want to go down that road”.
Full Article: Biometric Voting System Must Be Verifiable – Nana Akufo Addo | General News 2011-10-30.