Ghana is a developing country with increasingly stable democracy. Since the beginning of the fourth republic, there has been improvement in our electoral processes all in an attempt to maintain the credibility and integrity of the results that declares the winners of the elections. We have moved from opaque to transparent ballot boxes and from thumb print ID’s to coloured photo Ids. There has also been attempts by the EC to digitise the voters register. By 2008, political parties were given voters registers on CDs. The digital voters register increased accessibility to voters and also for easy validation. However, the electoral commission itself had cast doubt on the credibility of the voters register by publicly admitting that the voters register was bloated by a wide margin. Multiple registration, non-existent voters (Ghost names) and other factors had contributed to such an unacceptable bloated register. Nevertheless, the election was largely successful with stakeholders grudgingly accepting the results. After the elections, there were agitations by civil society groups and some political parties pushing ambitiously for e-voting. I have earlier in an article titled “E-voting obsession by the Danquah Institute” https://mokevor.wordpress.com/2011/08/03/e-voting-obsession-by-the-danquah-institute/ ,explained why I would not support e-voting in anyway but advocated for a biometric register and a polling station verification system to ensure a one-man-one-ballot condition. I did not however envisage that such a system could be implemented for the 2012 general elections. The EC recently came out with a statement to the effect that it will compile a biometric register to be used for the 2012 elections and has gone ahead with procurement arrangements. The government has also committed GH¢50m out of the EC’s budgeted GH¢80m, a sign of Government commitment to making Biometric Registration a success. Now when everybody thought we were waiting for a start date to initiate the Registration Process, the Opposition NPP started raising issues with Voting day Process of Verification and requesting that the EC implement a Biometric Verification System on voting day or forget the issue of Biometrics in totality. On several platforms, the NPP has sought to create false impressions that: • Once a biometric verification is implemented, there would not be any post election disputes. • If Biometric Verification is not implemented, Ghana would be plunged into a state similar to what other countries like Kenya and Cote D’Ivoire witnessed. • Biometric Registration and Biometric Verification are twin processes and hence the former cannot be done and a manual process used for the verification. Some NPP communicators based on these points have even sought to create doubts on the integrity of the commission. I see such a position as unfair and insincere especially when the NPP had initially anticipated that the EC will not implement the Biometric Verification on voting day. On Tuesday, 12 May 2009, the Electoral Commission and seven political parties including the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the New Patriotic Party (NPP), the Conventions People Party (CPP) and the Peoples National Convention (PNC) through the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) endorsed the compilation of a new voter register based on biometric technology as the solution to multiple registration and other electoral defects associated with voter registration in Ghana. At the said meeting no one, including the NPP, raised issues with voting day biometric verification. In a communiqué issued by the Danquah Institute, the NPP’s Advisor on e-Voting, on February 13th, 2010 (http://www.ghanadot.com/reviews.biometric.021310.html), it is stated clearly in paragraph 10 “Acknowledge further that while a biometric voter register can resolve the illegal practice of multiple registrations, it will, nevertheless, not arrest entirely the problems confronting our voting system……and the anticipated absence of an electronic biometric data identification/verification system for individual voters at the polling station on voting day.” The communiqué then resolved among other things that: 1. The Government of Ghana, all the political parties and the Electoral Commission and civil society pursue vigorously the implementation of a biometric voter register as endorsed by the Electoral Commission and the seven political parties on Tuesday, 12 May 2009 as a matter of urgency and necessity. 2. The Government of Ghana should enlist the support of Ghana’s development partners in order to provide the Electoral Commission with the required financial and other resources to enable the Commission undertake the biometric registration of voters as a matter of urgency and necessity for its timely application for the 2012 elections. 3. The Electoral Commission should produce a credible biometric voter register by 2012. Nowhere in the communiqué, a product of a 2day National Conference on Biometric Registration and e-Voting in Ghana held at Alisa Hotel, did Biometric Verification become a Holy Grail that could make or unmake Ghana’s well nurtured democracy. The NPP , together with all other political parties and the DI had anticipated that voting day biometric verification will not be implemented. If such a process had the tendency to make the elections chaotic, the attention of participants would be drawn to it and would have been part of the 22 paragraphed communiqué. Why would a political party and its leader move round the country and beyond telling everybody that the absence of a verification device will render an election problematic? It is not also true that the presence of it may avert any electoral fraud. We may still have the problem of Bypassing verification, issuance of multiple ballot papers by polling assistants, deliberately spoiling ballots by electoral officers before issuance to unsuspecting voters, disruption by “Machomen” who may snatch not only ballot boxes but the verifier even when it’s implemented. It is therefore important that we improve security and vigilance on the day of voting. Electoral violence has also arisen because of the stakes. The flagbearer of the NPP has already heightened the stakes from his quarters and no amount of Biometrics can stop whatever antics he would want to use. The last misconception I would like to touch on is the point that “You cannot do Biometric Registration without Biometric Verification.” I don’t know who created this theory which is being propagated by the NPP. Biometric applications have different purposes and depending on the purpose you may require a manual or biometric verifier. Our purpose is to have a credible register with the data of eligible voters captured once and voter’s ID matched with each entry. Once we have such a register, we can obtain hardcopies of the register and verify manually or electronic copies verified electronically. It is for the EC to decide which way to go. It is unnecessary for a political party to stampede the EC and impose any process on it. Since there could be a possibility of issuing multiple ballot papers to voters, another political party may also demand for a ballot dispenser that prints out ballot on demand-Immediately after verification. Should the party create a polluted environment or threaten boycott because the EC may not be able to implement it for at least 2012 elections? Our electoral system has received international endorsement. We must strive to improve it but we must take our time to plan well and do it efficiently and effectively. Author is the Ag. Eastern Region Communication Director, NDC Phone: 0249680628 email: mckevor@yahoo.com Kevor Mark-Oliver Ag. ER Communication Dir, NDC