Tech5 and uqudo develop biometric remote voter verification system for Oman election

The partnership of Tech5 and uqudo has led to the deployment of their technologies for remote biometric voter identity verification in Oman.

Tech5 contributed its facial authentication and biometric liveness detection technologies, and uqudo provided its digital identity platform. The companies launched a collaboration in December, when Tech5 made an investment in uqudo.

uqudo claims that it can verify identity documents from numerous countries in the MEA region, and that it is the only digital identity company that can verify national ID cards and passports. The company has offices in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Thailand, in addition to a head office in England.

A digital voter identification system was developed and facilitated by uqudo in collaboration with Tech5 for municipal elections held by Oman’s Ministry of Interior at the end of 2022.

The introduction of remote voting through biometrics also reduced the overall cost of the voting process dramatically, the partners say.

“uqudo’s powerful identity platform and TECH5’s technologies played a major role in easing the entire voting process and letting voters cast their votes without any technical issues while also reducing the number of election workers,” comments Oman Undersecretary in the Ministry of Interior and the Chairman of the Main Committee for Elections H.E. Khalid bin Hilal Al Busaidi.

During the elections, voters scanned their biometric identity cards with smartphones, and the system verified their identities with facial recognition and liveness detection algorithms from Tech5. The process is completely automated, and took less than a minute, according to the announcement.

“uqudo prides itself on building identity solutions that can be deployed and customised according to the regulations of every country in MEA,” says uqudo Founder and CEO Mohamed Fagiri. “Facilitating the recent Oman elections smoothly was in line with our vision to build a trustworthy identity platform and play a key role in our region’s digital transformation.”

Article Topics

biometric liveness detection  |  biometrics  |  document verification  |  elections  |  face biometrics  |  facial authentication  |  identity verification  |  Oman  |  TECH5  |  uqudo  |  voter identification