Laxton, Neurotechnology collaboration powered Liberia’s biometric voter registration for Oct. polls

This year, Liberia deployed a Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) system for the first time in its electoral history, and the software and hardware were provided thanks to a collaboration between Neurotechnology and Laxton Group.

An announcement from Neurotechnology says the job was executed alongside Laxton as the prime contractor that provided hardware including configured biometric registration kits, on-site technical support, operator training, logistics management and other related professional services.

The West African nation held general elections on October 10. A run-off for the presidential election took place on November 14, with incumbent President and football legend George Weah losing to septuagenarian opposition candidate Joseph Boakai.

The success of the election has partly been attributed to what Neurotechnology termed a “trusted voter registry” which saw the registration of close to 2.5 million voters with at least 27,000 duplicate entries expunged from the voter registry using biometric software.

The company said within a time span of just six weeks, it was able to provide services that were key to the electoral process including voter pre-registration, registration, registry clean-up, deduplication, and final voter list generation.

“Biometric technology for voter registration and elections is the future for one person, one vote,” said Davidetta Browne Lansanah, chairperson of Liberia’s National Elections Commission (NEC). “NEC Liberia recognizes Neurotechnology as a professional in Biometric Voter Registration Process.”

A total of 1,150 biometric kits were used around the country, and about 20 percent of the registrants used the online pre-registration portal which significantly reduced registration time, according to the release.

Those who completed pre-registration presented their QR codes at the time of biometric data collection, while those who didn’t go through that stage were asked to present their biographical data. Face and fingerprint biometrics were collected and voter IDs issued to all registrants.

While the system consolidated and securely merged data from different registration kits into a centralized registry, it also enabled a clean-up process that “effectively removed all impersonation attempts, suspected underage records and multiple registrations.”

The final voter’s roll was generated after provisional lists were publicly reviewed and changes made.

Neurotechnology says it deployed its MegaMatcher product line to generate a BVR system and Voter Management System (VMS). It also used the MegaMatcher Identity Management System (IDMS).

“In my view, the voter identity management project in the Republic of Liberia was a huge success,” said Irmantas Naujikas, director of Neurotechnology. “With the support of the National Elections Commission and our partner Laxton, we were involved at the very start of the project and together were able to foresee upcoming challenges and provide suitable solutions. This enabled us to manage risks and achieve remarkable outcomes with exceptional agility.”

A technical report released in September by a civil society organization working for the promotion of electoral integrity in Liberia described the voter registration exercise as a success.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  identity management  |  Laxton  |  Liberia  |  Neurotechnology  |  voter registration