Nigeria mandates fingerprint authentication at all polling stations for 2019 election

Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared that card readers must be present at all polling stations to perform voter fingerprint authentication with the country’s biometric Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) for the 2019 elections, The Nation reports.

An INEC official said the Commission would soon begin upgrading the card readers to prevent any problems experienced in previous elections.

INEC lost numerous card readers, including more than 1,300 in a single state during violence that dogged the 2015 election, according to the anonymous official. The country does not plan to add to the nearly 12,000 polling units, as calculated in an audit prior to the administration of Professor Attahiru Jega, which ran from 2010 to 2015.

Nigeria’s Ministry of the Interior announced plans in May to use biometrics to monitor the movement of people and goods across the country’s borders as part of an attempt to quell violence between farmers and herdsmen.

Article Topics

Africa  |  biometrics  |  fingerprint authentication  |  voter registration