The Electoral Commission (EC) has dismissed claims by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) that it has secured the serial numbers of the Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) kits used in the limited voter registration exercise.
EC Director of Electoral Services, Dr Serebour Quaicoe, challenged the claims and stressed that no one can acquire the BVR numbers without the EC’s approval.
“I will be surprised if they have it because it is almost impossible,” he said.
Dr Quaicoe then questioned the NDC’s motive for the constant demands for the serial numbers of the kits because the unique codes of the devices cannot help track the number of registered voters.
“Each day, before the registration starts, you are given a start-of-day report, and it is daily. Another is released at the close of the day. This close-of-day report gives you the list of people who registered and the time that they registered with their ID numbers. So, if you sum it up, you’ll have the total number of registered people.
“Now, these details will not be provided by having the BVR serial numbers. So for me, unless there is another reason, but their argument that they want to track the registration does not work like that,” he emphasised in an interview with Joy News.
It will be recalled that the NDC wrote to the EC to provide them with the serial numbers of the Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) kits.
However, the EC insisted that releasing the serial numbers to external parties could pose significant risks to the security and integrity of the electoral system and its operations.
In a sharp rebuttal, the NDC’s Deputy Director of Elections and IT, Tanko Rashid, argued that the commission’s position was unfounded.
He pointed out that during elections, the serial numbers of the Biometric Verification Devices (BVDs) are routinely provided to them and noted on the pink sheets.
Additionally, he said: “We’re monitoring everything that is going on at the Electoral Commission, their district offices, and their registration centres. Before the EC could compile the register, we would already have it. Thankfully, we have the serial numbers of every BVR”.