DERMALOG biometric devices to be used in Afghanistan’s presidential elections

Mar 24, 2019 | Stephen Mayhew

DERMALOG biometric devices to be used in Afghanistan’s presidential elections

An official of Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission (IEC) said Friday that the DERMALOG biometric devices used in last October’s parliamentary elections will be used for the upcoming presidential election in September, Tolo News reports.

Election commissioner Mohammad Abdullah said that the IEC will update the software of the devices for the upcoming elections.

“The biometric devices which are at the Central Statistics Organization are enough for the process and there is no need for purchasing of new devices,” Abdullah explained. “The software of the devices will be renewed and once they are renewed, they will register 10 fingers instead of two fingers and it will solve a big part of our problems.”

An investigation by some electoral monitoring organizations in Kabul revealed that at least 5,000 biometric devices were lost during and after the parliamentary elections. DERMALOG delivered more than 24,000 biometric capture devices for that election.

The City of Denver will pilot mobile voting through the blockchain- and biometrics-based Voatz app for its municipal election in May, and ID4Africa’s 2018 survey showed that 97 percent of conference attendees believe biometrics should be used to confirm voter eligibility.