News / National
Biometric voting system: To what extent is this feasible in Zimbabwe
25 Mar 2017 at 03:01hrs | Views
Democracy and Civil rights activist Linda Masarira has said explained that theoretically or on paper the Biometric voting system uses a thumb print or eye scan.
She said the system uses thumb impression for voter identification under the understanding that finger prints and eye iris are unique to every individual, even Siamese twins do not share the same finger prints.
"Given this understanding the Biometric Voting system would eliminate all the electoral fraud opportunities we have faced, but of course this will be as economists say. Ceteris paribus or holding all things constant. In Zimbabwe things are not and cannot be held constant," said Masarira.
"The Biometric voting I have just defined follows that there would have been a biometric voter registration where a database consisting of every eligible voter's unique finger prints or eye scan is created. During the actual elections, the fingerprint of a voter is entered as input to the system. This is then compared with the available records in the database. If the particular pattern matches with anyone in the available record, access to cast a vote is granted. But in case the pattern doesn't match with the records of the database or in case of repetition, access to cast a vote is denied or the vote gets rejected. The goal of biometric voting system is to prevent any ID-fraud. The current voting system is known that multiple fake identities were used for voting including dead people."
She said it therefore follows that unlike previous times when people would just need ballot papers and manual voter rolls/register, would now have: A computer with the software, slap fingerprint scanner, or eye scanner, signature pad, camera and a printer.
"That said, the question then comes, Is Biometric voting feasible in Zimbabwe? Well the Shona people have a proverb, "Kugara nhaka huona dzevamwe." Meaning for you to do something you would have seen others do it and admired it as well as learnt from them. Now following on this ancient piece of wisdom will be the question, has this Biometric voting system been used in Africa, yes it has been used in First world countries where electoral fraud is not really a big deal. Has it been used here in Africa where we have electoral fraud for breakfast?" she said.
"Yes it has been used in at least 25 African countries, or at least a version of biometric system. The countries include Ghana, Sierra Leone, Zambia, Malawi, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo and Cote d'Ivoire.but let me call your attention to Kenya before I explain, well the data is publicly available for all of you to see. In Kenya there were malfunctions in both the biometric kits and more extensively in the electronic tallying system forcing a manual tallying of votes; opposition leaders in both countries cried foul and challenged the results in court and well we know how our courts work, they lost."
She said some of the reasons they failed are straightforward in Kenya for example, many of the classrooms used as polling stations lacked electricity and laptops deployed as part of the biometric kits ran out of battery power just an hour after polling began.
"Considering the lack of preparedness by ZEC and our government when we are only about 15 months away from the 2018 elections we are likely to face the challenges Kenya faced. In most rural schools there is no electricity. Can our government mount generators and fuel them for the voting period? Will our government have sufficient funds to acquire the biometric equipment and software? Doctors were recently on strike, civil servants are still owed bonuses, and embassies are being sued for failure to pay rentals in foreign countries…well your guess is as good as mine," she said.
"Intimidation is the daily bread of the regime and who does not know of the elderly and rural folk who have been made to vote for ZANU PF under the scary statement "we will see where we voted using technology and come after you" Now imagine if this scare tactic worked when there was no computer in sight, now imagine when Gogo MaNcube can actually see a computer and is asked to put her finger on a finger print scanner or worse to look into an iris scanner. God forbid! ZANU will get victory on a silver platter!"
She said a computer system can fail and BVR systems have failed before, Hackers have been known to tinker with websites of electoral bodies, Gambia being a recent case in point, well Hilary Clinton and Donal Trump's sites were also attacked on the eve of the USA elections…now imagine if Donald Trump's site and all his money could be hacked what about ZEC...again your guess is as good as mine.
"Zimbabwe cannot afford this drama and experiment at this stage. A computer system can be manipulated and very few if any of the political parties and civil society have any skill to detect such manipulation. There is no way for us to guarantee that ZANU sorry ZEC the two confuse me, will not tinker with the electronic system and we see them having a landslide victory. That the system will be abused or manipulated by the regime is not a case of speculation. Robin Hood sorry Jonathan Moyo has on record said that ZANU PF is not going to reform itself out of power…so well there you have it," Masarira said.
"This will be giving Zanu PF and ZEC a free hand to rig with the permission of the political parties. Colleagues, you cannot control what you do not know. And a wise friend of mine once said "Do not expect what you do not inspect" there is no way we can inspect this. Zanu PF and ZEC control the passwords. These are the very people whom the Zimbabwean people do not trust. They can alter the data at any time. Remember whoever has the authority to add a voter's data can change or delete it and none of us can ever detect it."
"In conclusion my fear is that ZANU will heighten fears of the uneducated who cannot think objectively. If they could doctor election results manually as in the case of 2008, they definitely will manipulate this one. Right now ZANU is fractured and you all know what a wounded animal is capable of. Agreeing to this Biometric voting system is akin to baptising the devil with the tears of the saints on the altar. Lets not ululate for the witchdoctor who will accuse your mother of witchcraft. To all intents and purposes, Nope, BVR is not feasible in Zimbabwe at least not as long as ZANU PF is in control," she added.
She said the system uses thumb impression for voter identification under the understanding that finger prints and eye iris are unique to every individual, even Siamese twins do not share the same finger prints.
"Given this understanding the Biometric Voting system would eliminate all the electoral fraud opportunities we have faced, but of course this will be as economists say. Ceteris paribus or holding all things constant. In Zimbabwe things are not and cannot be held constant," said Masarira.
"The Biometric voting I have just defined follows that there would have been a biometric voter registration where a database consisting of every eligible voter's unique finger prints or eye scan is created. During the actual elections, the fingerprint of a voter is entered as input to the system. This is then compared with the available records in the database. If the particular pattern matches with anyone in the available record, access to cast a vote is granted. But in case the pattern doesn't match with the records of the database or in case of repetition, access to cast a vote is denied or the vote gets rejected. The goal of biometric voting system is to prevent any ID-fraud. The current voting system is known that multiple fake identities were used for voting including dead people."
She said it therefore follows that unlike previous times when people would just need ballot papers and manual voter rolls/register, would now have: A computer with the software, slap fingerprint scanner, or eye scanner, signature pad, camera and a printer.
"That said, the question then comes, Is Biometric voting feasible in Zimbabwe? Well the Shona people have a proverb, "Kugara nhaka huona dzevamwe." Meaning for you to do something you would have seen others do it and admired it as well as learnt from them. Now following on this ancient piece of wisdom will be the question, has this Biometric voting system been used in Africa, yes it has been used in First world countries where electoral fraud is not really a big deal. Has it been used here in Africa where we have electoral fraud for breakfast?" she said.
"Yes it has been used in at least 25 African countries, or at least a version of biometric system. The countries include Ghana, Sierra Leone, Zambia, Malawi, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo and Cote d'Ivoire.but let me call your attention to Kenya before I explain, well the data is publicly available for all of you to see. In Kenya there were malfunctions in both the biometric kits and more extensively in the electronic tallying system forcing a manual tallying of votes; opposition leaders in both countries cried foul and challenged the results in court and well we know how our courts work, they lost."
She said some of the reasons they failed are straightforward in Kenya for example, many of the classrooms used as polling stations lacked electricity and laptops deployed as part of the biometric kits ran out of battery power just an hour after polling began.
"Considering the lack of preparedness by ZEC and our government when we are only about 15 months away from the 2018 elections we are likely to face the challenges Kenya faced. In most rural schools there is no electricity. Can our government mount generators and fuel them for the voting period? Will our government have sufficient funds to acquire the biometric equipment and software? Doctors were recently on strike, civil servants are still owed bonuses, and embassies are being sued for failure to pay rentals in foreign countries…well your guess is as good as mine," she said.
"Intimidation is the daily bread of the regime and who does not know of the elderly and rural folk who have been made to vote for ZANU PF under the scary statement "we will see where we voted using technology and come after you" Now imagine if this scare tactic worked when there was no computer in sight, now imagine when Gogo MaNcube can actually see a computer and is asked to put her finger on a finger print scanner or worse to look into an iris scanner. God forbid! ZANU will get victory on a silver platter!"
She said a computer system can fail and BVR systems have failed before, Hackers have been known to tinker with websites of electoral bodies, Gambia being a recent case in point, well Hilary Clinton and Donal Trump's sites were also attacked on the eve of the USA elections…now imagine if Donald Trump's site and all his money could be hacked what about ZEC...again your guess is as good as mine.
"Zimbabwe cannot afford this drama and experiment at this stage. A computer system can be manipulated and very few if any of the political parties and civil society have any skill to detect such manipulation. There is no way for us to guarantee that ZANU sorry ZEC the two confuse me, will not tinker with the electronic system and we see them having a landslide victory. That the system will be abused or manipulated by the regime is not a case of speculation. Robin Hood sorry Jonathan Moyo has on record said that ZANU PF is not going to reform itself out of power…so well there you have it," Masarira said.
"This will be giving Zanu PF and ZEC a free hand to rig with the permission of the political parties. Colleagues, you cannot control what you do not know. And a wise friend of mine once said "Do not expect what you do not inspect" there is no way we can inspect this. Zanu PF and ZEC control the passwords. These are the very people whom the Zimbabwean people do not trust. They can alter the data at any time. Remember whoever has the authority to add a voter's data can change or delete it and none of us can ever detect it."
"In conclusion my fear is that ZANU will heighten fears of the uneducated who cannot think objectively. If they could doctor election results manually as in the case of 2008, they definitely will manipulate this one. Right now ZANU is fractured and you all know what a wounded animal is capable of. Agreeing to this Biometric voting system is akin to baptising the devil with the tears of the saints on the altar. Lets not ululate for the witchdoctor who will accuse your mother of witchcraft. To all intents and purposes, Nope, BVR is not feasible in Zimbabwe at least not as long as ZANU PF is in control," she added.
Source - Byo24News
