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The Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC), Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, said the Commission�s budget estimates for the biometric registration and the presidential and parliamentary elections stood at GH�243, 528, of which GH�134,726, 083 has been released for the voters� registration. He gave the break down as GH�148,942,378 for the biometric voters� registration, GH�7,477,966 for the exhibition of the provisional register and GH�87,107,961 for the presidential and parliamentary elections. He said, �Due to the timely release of funds, the Electoral Commission was in a position to announce that it planned to undertake a biometric voter registration of all eligible persons, including prisoners, in all regions and districts, at the same time, from 24th March to 5th May, 2012.� Dr. Afari-Gyan, who made the call at the Editors� forum in Accra on Wednesday, said: �A good election is ensured by the collaborative efforts of all citizens.� The forum, dubbed �The Election 2012, the Electoral Commission�s Preparations So Far,� sought to enlighten the electorate on key issues concerning election 2012, especially the biometric voters� registration. Dr. Afari-Gyan said the exercise would be a complete replacement of the existing voters� register, thereby rendering any previous voters� registration invalid for purposes of voting in the 2012 elections. Though the Electoral Commission (EC) would do all in its power to ensure successful elections, combined efforts and vigilance of the citizenry would also be required for free and fair polls in election 2012. There is the need for Ghanaians to acquaint themselves well enough with the various electoral processes, in order not to easily get swept off by rumours that had utterly no basis. Dr Afari-Gyan expressed worry that some people had made allegations of election fraud, causing unnecessary panic, without studying measures initiated to ensure easy prevention and detection of electoral fraud. Concerning the upcoming biometric registration, Dr. Afari-Gyan cautioned the people that �Ghana is not going to do biometric voting. We would also not do biometric counting�. He clarified that the biometric technology would only apply to voter registration, involving the use of computer methods to identify people. Dr. Afari-Gyan said the normal information required of voters would be collected during the registration, �then in addition, we would take all your ten finger prints and your picture digitally�. He said whilst the biometric technology might be used for civil or forensic purposes, the civil type was the one used in voters� registration. Dr. Afari-Gyan said: �The 2012 voter registration will represent a changeover to a new system, but not every aspect of the registration system will be new. Alongside the biographic data of the applicant, the ten fingerprints and the photograph will be taken digitally and the ordinary person that is what makes the registration biometric.� He said fingerprint biometric technology was popular with mass registrations because it was easier and cheaper to apply than others. Dr Afari Gyan said it was most reliable because it had been used and tested for about 30 years, and was also the least intrusive biometric method. He said: �The equipment to be used for the biometric voter registration is referred to as a (Digital Registration Kit), and its main components are an embedded computer, a webcam, a finger print scanner, an inkjet printer, a power regulator and Li-ion batteries�. Dr. Afari-Gyan said 7000 kits would be provided for the registration and that each kit was housed in a compact, lockable and robust case, which was water, dust and shock proof. He said registration would be done at registration centres, which would serve as polling stations during elections, and �in line with basic principles, where you are is where you vote.� Dr. Afari-Gyan stated that because 7000 kits would not be enough for registration in each of the country�s more than 23,000 polling stations at the same time, the polling stations in each district of the country had been grouped into clusters of four polling stations. He said a team of six persons would be responsible for the registration of voters in each cluster, and the team would spend 10 days at each polling station before moving on to another, which would bring the registration period to 40 days throughout the country. Dr. Afari-Gyan said apart from the six-person team per cluster of polling stations, there would be three registration supervisors and two technicians for each district. He noted, �If the biometric voter registration is done well, a person�s name would appear only once in the entire voters� register of the country, and any multiple registrations would be detected, through a full search of the fingerprints and photographs of registered voters.� Dr. Afari Gyan however cautioned that it was only through vigilance that the registration of foreigners and minors could be prevented, adding that �there are some things the kit will not know such as the difference between the finger print of a minor and an adult.� He said the Electoral Commission had set up a technical committee, made up of staff of the Commission and representatives of political parties to examine ways of achieving data security. Dr. Afari-Gyan said the registration would be done in the open, and only at the polling station or other approved places in the presence of party representatives and other observers. He stated that at the end of each day of registration, a print out of registered persons would be given to the party agents present, adding that the EC had established, apart from the central database at its head office, a data recovery centre which would contain the same data as the central data-base. He said whilst the EC was required by law to review the division of the country into parliamentary constituencies before election 2012, following the 2010 population census, there had been three obstacles to constituency demarcation. Dr. Afari-Gyan said one of the obstacles could be removed �today, irrespective of whether the Supreme Court decides that the formula used for demarcation is correct or not.� He said two obstacles that however remained were: �First, the final district population figures have not been officially released by the Statistical Service that carried out the census. Constituency demarcation cannot be based on un-official population figures�. Dr. Afari-Gyan said: �The government has not yet formally created the new districts it intends to create. This is an obstacle because on the basis of the existing demarcation formula, a district must have at least one constituency. So, you see that the Commission has to wait�. He explained that verification was about correctly identifying a person who was about to vote as having gone through appropriate registration. Dr. Afari-Gyan said whilst an effective application of the biometric system meant a definite end to voter impersonation, it was important for stakeholders to be prepared for possible problems that might arise with the new registration system. He stated, �We should not go to sleep, hoping that over 23,000 verification devices scattered in various environmental conditions around the country will all work to perfection�. Ambassador Kabral Blay-Amihere, Chairman of the National Media Commission (NMC), noted that the media played a key role in ensuring a successful election, and asked journalists to be ready as they had a great responsibility to ensure peaceful elections. �The media needs to go beyond partisanship which sometimes clouds simple issues in mystery,� he said. Ransford Tetteh, President of the Ghana Journalists Association, said the media had been a strong component of Ghana�s democratic process. He said when the media came up with issues that had the tendency of causing political unrest, a chaotic situation typically followed as a consequence. �For Ghana to progress, we must all support the Electoral Commission to conduct a free and fair election,� Mr Tetteh said. Adjoa Yeboah-Afari, Chairperson of the Editors Forum, Ghana, noted that in an election year, it was important that journalists understood electoral issues well enough to enable them to rightly inform the public.