EC silences critics, says pilot exercise was successful

The Electoral Commission (EC) has silenced critics  following the  successful  piloting of the  Biometric Voter Registration exercise across the country.
The exercise went on smoothly contrary to the expectation of some critics, who had demonized the EC prior to the exercise.
The  pilot exercise on the Biometric Voter Registration system was executed  in all the sixteen (16) regional capitals in the country.
In a statement, the EC explained that the essence of the exercise was to evaluate the preparedness of the Commission for the upcoming Voter Registration Exercise.
“Amongst the metrics that were tested was the efficiency of the Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) kits and its adaptability to various operating conditions in various parts of the country.
The Commission also took the opportunity to evaluate the various mitigation measures it has put in place to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 disease during the registration period,” the EC stated.
Still dwelling on the success of the exercise, the EC confirmed that the exercise went on smoothly at all the designated centres, except in the Western region where the BVR Kit developed a fault on the second day.
“This lead to the suspension of the exercise in the Western region but afforded the Commission the opportunity to test its inbuilt processes of dealing with equipment breakdowns during the registration process,” the EC stated.
Meanwhile, the EC also made it known that the lessons learnt from this investigation will further improve the Commission’s response to such occurrences.
“It is worthy of note that on the first day of the pilot, the Western Region had the highest number of registered applicants (73),” it stated. However, the EC said all political Party representatives were present at each of the centres to observe the exercise.
“At the end of the two (2) day exercise, a total of 1,990 applicants  were registered, with 745 applicants registered are Day one (1) and 1,245 on Day two (2),” the EC stated.
The Commission was also appreciative of the genuine interest and enthusiasm shown by the general public and political parties to make this pilot a success.
“On the second day, the Volta Region and Ahafo Region had the highest number of applicants registered with 105 each. The region with the lowest applicants registered was North East with 51.
Using the expected improved performance on the second day, the average number of applicant registered per day was 83,” the Commission stated.
It added that,”This metric is expected to only get better, to reach over 100 registered applicants per kit per day, as was attained by some regions during the pilot.
At that level of performance and with the continued enthusiastic participation of the Ghanaian public, the Commission is confident of registering some 13 million plus applicants within the first 21 days of the mass registration.”
The EC said that it is very satisfied with the exercise and will use the lessons learnt to improve upon the conduct of the upcoming Voter Registration exercise.
Ghana | Atinkaonline.com