Colombia to use biometric voter registration for 2014 elections

Colombia has secured financing to implement a biometric registry for the country’s upcoming 2014 elections.

Reported in ColombiaReports.com, fraud has been an issue in the past and is what has led the country to biometric verification for voters. In 2011, many investigations were launched following reports of election fraud and in it was discovered that 4 million dead voters wrongfully existed in the registry.

“We have agreed that on this matter there will be no more setbacks and … in 100% of the elections voters are going to use biometric registration, in other words the fingerprint, which gives additional reliability to the electoral process,” Cardenas is quoted to have said in the report.

In December, 2012, Ghana held an election using biometric verification devices as the world watched with bated breath. Now, nearly six months after the country’s election, results are still being contested, following much confusion over the status of verification machines during and after the election in Ghana.

This isn’t the first time the biometric system used to verify voters has been called into question after-the-fact.

Reported previously, Henrique Capriles Radonski, leader of the opposition in Venezuela, has demanded an audit of the entire election including fingerprints stored in the election registry, following his party’s loss by less than 2 percent in the country’s recent presidential elections.

Also, following an election in Kenya using biometric verification, the machines were heavily criticized for technical problems which led to long delays and in many cases, non-functional verification devices. 

 

Article Topics

elections  |  fingerprint  |  voter registry