Integrity Of 2024 Polls Intact – EC

Jean Mensa

 

The Electoral Commission (EC) while acknowledging that a man has been arrested for possessing a Biometric Verification Device (BVD), points out that this cannot compromise the integrity of the polls.

In a statement following the arrest of a suspect in Nsawam, who had in his possession a BVD last Friday, August 23, 2024, and signed by Samuel Tettey, Deputy Chairman, Operations, the EC pointed out that “the EC takes this incident of an unauthorised person in possession of a BVD very seriously.”

The Commission was however quick to add that “a stolen BVD cannot jeopardise the integrity of the 2024 Elections.”

Last week’s incident comes on the heels of the theft of five laptops forming part of Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) kits from the stores of the Commission in April this year. Also recorded at the time was the vandalisation of five BVDs and theft of two BVDs from the Tarkwa Nsuaem District and North Tongu District respectively  during the December 2023 District Level Elections.

The EC then stated that the foregone could not compromise the integrity of the polls.

The device, according to the EC in this latest release, “cannot be used to compromise an election, without the necessary technical and security protocols.”

The EC explains further that the Commission “undertakes deliberate process of preparing a Biometric Verification Device (BVD) for any election that ensures that only BVDs that are prepared for a particular election can be used for that election.”

The Commission added that the process is robust and is not vulnerable to manipulation.  “The possession of a BVD that has not gone through this rigorous process that is yet to happen for the 2024 Elections does not affect the integrity of the Elections,” the EC pointed out.

Continuing, the EC said that “the voter verification application is designed such that it only works with data that is prepared, audited, encrypted and signed by a Secure Process. Access to this process is highly restricted. Without access to this Secure Process, Voter Data cannot be generated to work with the BVD. The data that is loaded onto the BVDs are set to be activated for a particular Election Day.  A stolen BVD therefore cannot work in the December 2024 Elections.”

The BVDs as part of the Start Up Process, checks for the integrity of the Data that is loaded onto it. If the Voter Data on the BVD has been affected in anyway, the Start Up Process is halted and the BVD will not work, the EC said.

The Commission added that “activation of the BVDs involves the use of Activation Codes that can only be downloaded from EC’s Secure System,” and this, it added, is restricted to Election Officials with the right access credentials.

The data that is loaded onto the BVD must conform with the details of voters on the voters’ register for each polling station, according to the statement. This data, the statement said, is not static and changes with every Election Cycle and “since the voters register for various polling stations for the 2024 Elections will be different from previous elections any data on a BVD that was activated for a previous Election will not conform with the voters register at the particular polling station on December 7, 2024.”

The EC is emphatic about this fact: “BVDs are used only to verify voters. They are not used to vote.”

Political party agents, the statement stressed, observe the packing of election materials, including BVDs and they record the serial numbers of BVDs that are deployed at each polling station.

While adding that the serial numbers of the BVDs that are used on Election Day are recorded on the Statement of Polls (pink sheet) for each polling station, the process provides further evidence as to which specific BVDs were used to verify voters at each polling station.

The Commission is undertaking its own internal investigation even as it charges the police to do everything in their power to unravel the circumstances surrounding the BVD that was found in the possession of the person arrested last Friday.

By A.R. Gomda

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