Zimbabwe evaluating biometric voter registration kits

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) is conducting field tests of biometric voter registration (BVR) kits from the two companies bidding for the contract ahead of next year’s elections, according to a report by The Herald.

The companies bidding to supply the BVR kits are Germany’s Dermalog and China’s Laxton Group. They were reportedly selected by an evaluation team comprising of officials from ZEC and the United Nations Development Programme.

Ten officials have been trained to operate the BVR kits as required by the tender document. “This training is provided for in the tender document and forms part of the assessment tasks,” explained ZEC chairperson Justice Rita Makarau. “The training was conducted in the presence of ZEC and accredited observers. The mock registration is part of a tender requirement.”

The mock registration exercise saw the BVR kit operators register students who “will not be part of the 2018 voter population” and allowed the assessors to test issues including time taken to set up the equipment, flashing out double registrations, how the webcam captures photographs, how the fingerprint scanner captures the fingerprint and battery life of the kit.

The evaluation team will present its report to the ZEC on Thursday and the State Procurement Board on Friday.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  elections  |  facial recognition  |  fingerprint biometrics  |  voter registration  |  Zimbabwe