Seventy-five-year-old retiree, Komla Ebenezer didn’t have his voters’ Identification card on voting day last December during Ghana’s general elections. He had failed to participate in a verification exercise before the election.
Komla was worried he wouldn’t be able to participate in the electoral process. But his fears were allayed at the polling station.
Komla was given a second chance to vote after he opted to try to use his National ID card also known as the Ghana card.
“On the voting day, I was a little apprehensive. But someone told me to go and try with the national ID card,” he narrated to TV3’s Laud Adu-Asare.
“When I got there, I asked whether, with the national ID card, I could vote and they said yes, so I entered. They pointed me to a particular spot where the name starting with my surname could be available. And when I got there, I just submitted my national ID card and waited for the person to search through. They located my name and they identified with the machine.
“I placed my fingers on it and it clicked. So, they put an indelible mark on one of my fingers and gave me my voting papers,” he concluded with satisfaction.
For Judith Brown and Kofi Frimpong, the experience was similar. The polling officers checked for their identification details available on the voters register and once their names were verified and cross checked on the biometric machines, they went through due process and voted.
“Once I showed up at a polling station where I’ve been voting over the years, I mentioned my name to the individual, then all they had to do was to check the register, they did the biometric verification and then I proceeded to vote. It’s a very simple process, it didn’t take more than even two minutes to be given the clearance to take the ballot paper and vote,” Frimpong narrated.
Judith who was a first-time voter found it quite surprising how smooth the process was because of the biometric systems in place.
“It was so smooth, seamless, and very easy. I just told them my name from my surname through to my first name. The electoral officer looked through the system and easily found my name. They told me to bring my hand and put it in the ink at the next table,” she said.
“Then I was given my paper for the presidential, I went to the booth, voted, came back to the parliamentary sheet, went and voted as well. And then that was it,” Judith added.
Two weeks before the 2024 elections, the Deputy Commissioner in charge of Corporate Services, Dr Eric Bossman Asare ignited hope in electorates who had misplaced their voter Identification cards.
He disclosed that such individuals could still exercise their constitutional mandate.
“To vote on election day, you don’t need your voter ID card. If you have your voter ID card it makes the process very very easy. But if you don’t have one, when you go to the polling station, at each polling station, there are 5 officials. The first person you will encounter is who we call the reference officer.
“The reference officer has a list of all the people who are registered voters at that particular polling station. Assuming they don’t have your voter ID card and you mention your name, that person will check your name based on your surname. He will check the column where your name is as well as the page number and then scan your barcode on the voters register,” Deputy Commissioner Eric Bossman Asare outlined.
Successful elections have characterised Ghana’s democracy since 1992, when the country returned to constitutional rule.
At the heart of this is the continuous electoral reforms with the aim of enhancing the transparency, integrity and inclusivity of the democratic process across the country.
The country has undertaken several electoral reforms including replacing thumb-printed voter ID cards with photo IDs, replacement of opaque ballot boxes with transparent ones, introducing Biometric Verification Machines, creating sixteen (16) regional collation centres to replace the two hundred and seventy-five (275) among others.
The most notable one has been the biometric voter register which was introduced in 2012 to reduce voter impersonation and fraud.
Biometric data involves digitally capturing the unique physical features of people. These include the fingerprints, characteristics of the face, the lines in the eyes’ irises or how one’s voice sounds.
The Biometric Verification Machines which contain the data of viable electorates make identification easy and avoid voter impersonation among other things.
It also promotes inclusivity such that persons who may have lost their ID cards are not disenfranchised as a result. It allows such persons to cast their votes after verifying their biometric information which has been captured.
To eliminate issues of identity theft and fraud in the system, the Electoral Commission introduced an additional security feature known as the liveness detection feature. During the voter verification system, this feature helped to prevent the illegal transfer of voters from one polling station to the other.
As far as the security of data shared is concerned, the Electoral Commission has over the years acquired the services of different Biometric Voter Management system to help curb issues of fraud.
In 2020, Neurotechnology, which partnered with the EC said its biometric system helped expunge almost 15,000 duplicate registrations. Laxton and Thales were also involved in biometric voter registration for the elections.
Neurotechnology’s MegaMatcher was used by the Commission in 2024.
Though there were a few issues with the biometric system in some polling stations across the country. A greater percentage was fruitful leading to confidence in the system.
Fraud Prevention Expert and Security Consultant, Richard Kumadoe commended the Electoral Commission for the use of the biometric system in the 2024 elections.
“One of the critical advantages of the biometric system is that it facilitates the process. It avoids ambiguity and speeds up the process. It also deflates rumours about multiple voting. It creates an environment of trust, transparency and the biometric process ensures that reconciliations can be done at each polling station and collation centre.
“Discrepancies could also be resolved, and where there are challenges, there could be remedies for which avoids harsh ramifications as a result of fraud and criminality. So, I think by and large the biometric register served its purpose,” he explained.
He, however, noted that the manual verification not be discarded and increased education be carried out to inform the populace and demystify the biometric system.
By Laud Adu-Asare
This report is produced under the DPI Africa Journalism Fellowship Programme of the Media Foundation for West Africa and Co-Develop.
