Cameroon’s election agency trains staff on use of newly acquired biometric gear

Cameroon’s elections management agency known by the acronym ELECAM recently held a training workshop for trainers on the effective use of 1,000 newly acquired biometric voter registration kits.

Speaking recently at the training event which also marked the first time information was made public about the availability of the kits, ELECAM’s Chief electoral officer, Dr Erik Essoussè, explained the importance of the new generation equipment, saying they will streamline the voter registration process and enable ELECAM attain its objectives faster. He said the kits incorporate advanced technologies that will guarantee faster, more reliable, and secure voter registration operations.

Information about ELECAM’s plan to acquire new voter registration gear had been in the public domain for long. Last year, Essoussè said in a press conference that the agency had obtained funding from the government for the project.

For many years, there were concerns about the ageing nature of ELECAM’s biometric kits, some of which have been in use and unreplaced for 13 years. Some of the complaints were that the old kits often suffered failures, slowing down the voter registration process.

Cameroon introduced a biometric voter registration system in 2012 with a first set of 1,200 kits supplied then by German firm Giesecke and Devrient. Other kits were later purchased from GenKey and Veridos, according to ELECAM sources.

According to Essoussè, the new kits will go a long way in enhancing the integrity of the electoral register which has been the subject of intense debate among opposition political parties in the past months.

“I want to say that this is a special day for Elections Cameroon because we have faced many challenges updating our system for producing cards and voter registration. The machines were outdated, dating back to 2012, 2013, and 2017. So, we had to adapt our system to new technology, and now, we have successfully done that,” Essoussè said. At a board meeting last December, ELECAM discussed a plan on training its staff to effectively use the new biometric voter registration kits.

He disclosed that each kit includes a latest-generation Dell laptop, an ultra-high definition FAP60 fingerprint scanner, an advanced HD 1080p webcam, a solar panel extension, a tripod and a retractable photographic backdrop, among others.

The kits contain devices from Integrated Biometrics and Logitech, but information about the kit supplier has not been disclosed.

Apart from the training on how to use the new biometric kits, Essoussè also made a stop with reporters at the National Center for Electoral Biometrics, where he explained the capabilities of a new Persoline MS8100 machine recently acquired for printing voter IDs. He said the machine is capable of printing 3,000 voter cards per hour.

Essoussè says with these advancements, ELECAM aims to accelerate the process of revising the electoral, at the same time, leverage technology to enhance the organisation of the upcoming presidential election.

Cameroon is due to hold a presidential vote in October, and then national assembly and local council elections next year.

Also, as part of the ELECAM’s preparation for these elections, it recently signed a technical assistance deal with the United Nations. The deal sealed on May 9 in Yaounde between the UN Resident Coordinator in Cameroon, Issa Sanogo, and ELECAM Board Chair, Enow Abrams Egbe, is meant to support the organization of inclusive, peaceful and transparent elections.

Article Topics

Africa  |  biometric enrollment  |  biometrics  |  Cameroon  |  digital ID  |  ELECAM  |  elections  |  Integrated Biometrics  |  voter registration