Ghana deploys GenKey biometric voter verification solution

GenKey announced that its biometric voter verification solution has been successfully deployed, with the cooperation of local partner STL, at the District Level Elections in Ghana, which was held on September 1.

The news comes a few weeks after Ghanaian opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) claimed that the party used facial recognition technology to discover that there are 76,000 fake voters on the country’s voter’s register.

The Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana had selected STL/GenKey’s solution to verify the identity of eligible voters on election day to ensure fair and transparent elections.

The solution included GenKey’s mobile biometric verification device, which includes a barcode reader, a fingerprint scanner and a screen displaying instructions to the operator as well as the facial image of the registered voter.

The devices were upgraded after they were used in the last general elections in December 2012.

EC officials conducted the biometric verification of voters on election day at 26,906 polling stations across the country.

In order to ensure a seamless voting process, GenKey delivered 72,000 verification devices — which worked out to at least two devices per polling station — that were used by trained operators.

The Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO), who deployed nearly 700 observers in 500 sampled polling stations in 86 districts of Ghana, said the District Level Elections occurred in a relatively calm environment without any notable incidents.

The observers reported that the voter verification devices were functioning well at the polling stations observed, with the exception of a few cases where the equipment experienced temporary technical issues.

However, the machines in question were quickly fixed and did not greatly impact the voting process.

“We are proud to have successfully delivered our biometric voter verification solution during the District Level Elections,” said Michiel van der Veen, CEO of GenKey. “It supports our mission to provide digital identities to citizens in emerging economies enabling fair elections and supporting democracy.”

Previously reported, GenKey announced that the Tanzanian government deployed its biometric identification solutions for its upcoming national elections, including its Voter ID Management Solution (SPiRE), Automated Biometric Identification Solution (ABIS) for deduplication, and Adjudication solutions.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  facial recognition  |  GenKey  |  Ghana  |  identity verification  |  voter identification