Use Wulensi By-Election As Pilot Exercise

The Danquah Institute has appealed to the Electoral Commission to use the Wulensi by-election as an opportunity to test its readiness and that of the electorate towards the successful use of the biometric voter register and verification equipment on 7th December, 2012.

According to the Institute, it would be in the interest of the nation for the Electoral Commission to use the Wulensi by-elections as a pilot exercise for the biometric voters register and verification, saying “We cannot let this wonderful opportunity to educate the whole nation on this new system pass us by.”

In a statement, it said that the Institute had learnt with regret that the Electoral Commission intends to use the old 2008 voters' register for the upcoming July 31 Wulensi by-election.

“We wish to encourage the EC to have a rethink and proactively take the opportunity that this unexpected by-election represents to use Wulensi as a pilot test for the new technology of using a biometric voters' list and biometric verification system for our general elections,” it stated in the statement.

According to the Institute, while it appreciated the fact that the cleaning up exercise had its own timetable and that the exercise must be done as a whole in order to get a comprehensively credible voters' list for December 7, we believe the EC can still isolate the estimated 36,000 Wulensi voters' list, work on any challenges and prepare it for exhibition in time for July 31.

All this may be done without necessarily compromising the integrity of the new nationwide voters' list. The task then would be to ensure that the biometric data of persons appearing on the Wulensi list would not be duplicated elsewhere.

It is our view that the advantages of using Wulensi as a test case for this important democratic national (and international) assignment far outweigh any difficulties that may be cited against it, the statement said.