Ugandan rights advocate urges Africa to look inwards when choosing biometrics tech for elections

Crispin Kaheru, a member of the Uganda Human Rights Commission, has praised the increasing role technologies such as biometrics play in the conduct of elections in Africa but says that African nations should go for homegrown solutions and those that best work for them.

In an opinion published by New Vision, the official also advocates that African governments must be ready to increase their spending on technologies that proffer a ray of hope for the organisation of less reproachable elections.

Kaheru notes that given the increasing role played by technology in elections in Africa and the high cost incurred by governments in procuring technologies for election administration and management, it is also important for the continent to start thinking of what he terms “homegrown solutions.”

“Imagine Africa predominantly imports these technologies, incurring substantial costs. why don’t we invest in developing our own systems, software, and applications to reduce reliance on expensive foreign imports? Alternatively, why not explore local integration to harness already existing domestic capabilities?” the rights commissioner questions. He adds while the desire to go for the best solution is legitimate, it is equally necessary to seek “cost-effective and reliable solutions that work for us.”

While recognizing the growing number of countries using technologies for different components of their elections such as voter registration, voter authentication and accreditation, and the transmission and tallying of votes, Kaheru cautions that it is important for countries to “fully consider the role of technology in their electoral processes with the focus to striking the balance between modernization, cost and need.”

The quest to include biometrics in electoral processes is part of the digital transformation plan of a number of countries around the world and demonstrated lately in countries such as Colombia, Guyana, Jamaica, Pakistan, and the United Arab Emirates.

In Nigeria, where a biometrics system dubbed Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) was fully deployed for the first time for voter authentication during general elections early this year, the government claimed it significantly enhanced the credibility of the polls, although there were serious criticisms.

As the country looks to organize governorship elections in three states next month, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has assured citizens that steps have been taken to improve the performance and reliability of BVAS devices for voter accreditation and for the upload of results to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV), Leadership reports.

INEC Chairman Prof Mahmood Yakubu said at a recent meeting with stakeholders that the election agency received no “adverse report” after a mock accreditation process for potential voters in the three states was conducted about two weeks ago using the BVAS.

An INEC official had said that over 11k BVAS devices will be deployed for the elections to choose new Governors in the States of Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi.

Article Topics

Africa  |  Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS)  |  biometrics  |  digital government  |  elections  |  voter accreditation  |  voter registration