The Electoral Commissions call for a new voters’ register has been explained in a clear cut presentation made to the Civil Society Organizations in a meeting last week.
Apart from the operational issues, challenges with the datacenter and network, the current system was not able to support the current and future demands of the Commission, the EC says.
This was contained in a presentation made by the Electoral Commission to the Civil Society Organizations.
Accroding to the EC it was a closed proprietary system that did not allow itself for upgrades.
With issues of cost a major factor too, a new voters’ register will save the nation more than a refurbishment.
Proposed cost for the refurbishment of the Data Centre is $15m while the cost of a new Data Centre will be $6m. The annual maintenance cost of the Data Centre is $4m while it will cost $1m to maintain a new one.
Therefore a whopping $12m would be saved.
In a presentation to the CSO’s, the EC said it appreciates the advantages of using government shared hosting services, however in this instance the hosting is not a viable option because; there would be unnecessary suspicion of government control if the EC kept its application servers in the government manage cloud or facility.
Also, saving the EC’s data in the public cloud is not an option for the Commission as the biometric matching servers are processor intensive and does not lend itself for being hosted in a virtualized environment.
The EC says one of the major challenges of the current system, BVR Kit is that it has been used since 2011 and many of its component parts had reach end of life and end of support.
It says a large quantity of the kits had many faulty component parts that were difficult to replace (keyboard, mouse, screen, camera).
The battery packs had worn out and therefore the decreased battery autonomy could not guarantee continuous use of the BVR among many other reasons.
See attached the full presentation of the EC to the Civil Society Organizations last Thursday.
Source: Peacefmonline.com
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Those Countries you have cited as Progressive Countries that have permanent Voters' Register don't appoint EC specifically to do their bidding of seeing to their Party interest to win elections. To achieve that party interest to rig elections, minors, foreigners and the deceased are kept on the Register to infiltrate voting in their favor. We Ghanaians, specifically, the NDC as a political party are enemies of their own problems. Conversely, when it turns against them, they turn swiftly to play the proverbial ostrich. Ghanaians, seem to encourage NDC to treat us the way they do, which seeks to underrate our intelligence.
Why anyone who comes into power always think as if he or she pays themselves? or all powers belong to him? What is the problem and what motive them to behaving that way?
Kwame , LAPAZ. Serious and progress countries do not change their voters register like Pampers or diapers. Progressive country like, USA,AUSTRALIA, JAPAN ,NIGERIA, SOUTH AFRICA have permanent register which they update periodically. EC should plug into Ghana card after full registration of Ghanaians. Get a permanent register and must be done well and not in this hasty form JEAN MENSAH WANTS TO INTRODUCE. BIOMETRIC DATA NEVER EXPIRES. ONLY UNDER JEAN MENSAH AND SLEEPING PRESIDENT . FOUR MORE YEARS FOR NANA TO SLEEP ON THE JOB.
I support this new Voter card because my picture on the old one has change soo much that sometimes some banks reject it.
THERE SHOULD BE AN URGENT CORDINATION BETWEEN NIA AND EC SO THAT GHANA CARD IS USED FOR THE ELECTORAL REGISTER. WHAT IS THE SENSEEEE TO ACQUIRING NEW EQUIPEMENT TO START NEW REGISTRATION FOR ELECTION. AT WORST ADDITIONAL EQUIPMENT AND PERSONNEL SHOULD BE GRANTED TO NIA TO WORK FASTER TO COMPLETE ITS WORK. MY GOD. IS ANYBODY THINKING IN GHANA, I AM SORRY. WHAT A WASTE SOCIETY. HOW CAN WE GROW WHEN WE DONT HAVE VALUE FOR MONEY. WE WASTE SO MUCH FOR NOTHING. YES, EC MAY SAVE A LOT OF MONEY BY NEW EQUIPEMENT FOR NEW REGISTER BUT THAT CANNOT BE BETTER THAN SUPPORTING NIA TO PROVIDE THE DATA BASE TO BE EXTRACTED FOR EC REGISTER. THE LATTER MAY COST ALMOST NOTHING. PLEASE, DEAR EMINENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE, DO SOMETHING TO SAVE THE NATIONS THE COST FOR NEW EQUIPMENT FOR NEW REGISTER. CALL TOGETHER THE EC TECHNICIANS AND GHANAIAN TECHNICIANS AT HOME AND ABROAD WHO CAN HELP TO MAKE NIA DATA BASE AVAILABLE AND APPLICABLE FOR 2020 ELECTIONS. GHANA CARD CANNOT HAVE ANY BETTER IMPORTANCE WHATSOEVER THAN TO BE USE FOR ELECTIONS. WHATEVER PROBLEMS NIA HAVE NOW CANNOT BE WORSE THAN WHAT A NEW REGISTRATION CARD FOR ELECTION MAY HAVE. ANY PROBLEM FOR GHANA CARD TODAY CAN BE RESOLVE FASTER AND BETTER THAN THE UNKNOWN PROBLEM THAT NEW ELECTORAL REGISTRATION CARD MAY CAUSE. IN FACT IF A NEW CARD IS MADE FOR ELECTION MANY PEOPLE MAY NOT FIND IT IMPORTANCE TO COLLECT THEIR GHANA CARD FROM NIA, ANOTHER WASTE. THOUGH THE PRODUCTION AND ACQUISITION OF GHANA CARD HAS NO TIME BOUND A DEADLINE CAN BE SET TO SEAL THE DATE FOR THE EXTRACTION OF THE ELECTORAL REGISTER. EAC MUST HELP TO BRING ALL RELATED TECHNICAL MINDS OF EC, NIA AND OTHER GHANAIANS EITHER HOME AND ABROAD TOGETHER TO FORMULATE WHAT IS NEEDED TO ACCOMPLISH A CREDIBLE ELECTIONS. THEIR FINDINGS AND PROPOSALS MUST BE BROUGHT BEFORE EC, POLITICAL PARTIES, CIVIL SOCIETIES IN A SHORT POSSIBLE TIME. THOUGH THIS IS NOT IMAGINED, WHEN ALL BECOME INVOLVED WE CANNOT BLAME EC FOR ANY DELAY SHOULD IN CASE IT HAPPENS SO BECAUSE THIS IS GHANA PROJECT AND NOT ONLY EC PROJECT. WE WANT WHAT IS BEST FOR GHANA AT A REASONABLE MINIMUM COST. THE EARLY WE START WORKING TOGETHER THE BETTER IT IS FOR ALL OF US. ONE MAY ASK WHY SHOULD WE DO ALL THIS ONLY WHEN NPP IS IN GOVERNMENT AND NOT NDC WHO IS ALWAYS ALLOWED TO HAVE A FIELD DAY? MY ANSWER IS THAT AS PARENTS WE ADVICE OOR CHILDREN WHO TAKE ADVISE. WE DON'T WASTE OUR TIME ON THOSE WHO DO NOT APPRECIATE THE VALUE FOR REASONING. NPP MUST ALSO KNOW THAT THEY ARE DOING ALL FOR GHANA AND THEY MUST GIVE WHAT IS THE BEST TO THE FUTURE GENERATION WHETHER THEY ARE IN POWER OR NOT. NO GOOD DEED GOES UNREWARDED. WE NEVER HEARD OF EAC DURING NDC TIME BUT NPP IN THEIR WISDOM HAVE ESTABLISHED IT. WE MUST SUPPORT IT TO WORK FOR ALL.
I believe any honest intellectual, or institution would agree with me that, indeed, the EC had done extensive consultations before holding on to her stance of the need for compiling a new Voters’ Register. Therefore, any institution, whether Think Tank or Civil Society that seeks to discredit the EC, because it holds varied views is being academically disingenuous. Then, different opinions and views are academically healthy, thus, they exhibit informed and constructive approaches. Hence, the discourse and the argumentation of the issue at hand should be civil and factually strong to help the public make individual opinions without making those who hold different views look suspicious of any wrong-doing let alone incredible. There is a common etiquette which says: if somebody is telling you a ridiculous story, or all that may have the earmarks of being a bid lie, do not for your best interest give him a suspicious look as much as to say, I know you are lying to me. It is only civil to present your views based on your pieces of information, facts, and expertise without offending those who hold different views. We have to see it as a competition of ideas that seeks to convince, win the public, and institutions to make informed decisions. For the IMANI to be using strong words to create the impression that only IMANI can be correct and the EC is diabolic in its decisions is very unfortunate. Though the EC had explained most of the points IMANI sought to be at variance with, yet IMANI maintained its position. I think, within the discretional nature of some decisions EC had to take, I believe strongly, that notwithstanding, that EC is doing a great job.