The Director of IT of the National Democratic Congress Osei Griffiths fears Ghana may be exchanging a superior biometric system for an inferior one with moves to compile a new register.
The Electoral has indicated that it will commence the compilation of a new biometric register from June 30 for the 2020 elections.
The exercise is part of a grand scheme to replace the entire biometric system in place at the EC with the excuse that the system is overstretched.
The EC has promised to deploy a better quality system, in addition to embedding facial recognition into the new system.
Osei Griffiths is however convinced the system that was deployed during the pilot biometric registration exercise is inferior to the existing one.
He told Sena Nombo on the Gold Power Drive the fact that the current system rejected new registrants as being already on the system was a cause for worry and a sign that the EC may be headed for disaster.
The NDC IT Director also fears that the system has not been adequately tested ahead of a major registration exercise that would cover over 17 million citizens.
Osei Griffiths said the pilot that the EC conducted was not representative of the over 8,000 machines that they intend to deploy because they were conducted in 16 Regional offices of the EC hence cannot be used to test the efficacy of the registration system.
He also asserted that the EC’s existing biometric system is superior to the system of the National Identification Authority (NIA).
The NIA system has printed and issued duplicate ID cards to some registrants.
This according to Mr. Griffiths is evidence that even the NIA system is inferior to the EC’s existing biometric system.
He therefore wondered how the EC intended to clean up a superior system with an inferior one.
Source: Radio Gold Power Drive/Radiogoldlive.com
