The Prime Minister, Mr Mizengo Pinda, has nodded to plans by the National Electoral Commission (NEC) to introduce Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) ahead of the 2015 general elections.
Prime Minister, Mr Mizengo Pinda
However, Mr Pinda warned that the NEC must have a back-up system in place in case of malfunctioning of the BVR as happened recently in Kenya and Ghana.
“I believe NEC is doing this in good faith”, observed Mr Pinda here when responding to the Leader of the Official Opposition in the House, Mr Freeman Mbowe, who expressed reservations over the move to introduce a system that he said had failed elsewhere.
Mr Pinda hoped that the new system would help reduce complaints over delays that were rife in the old manual system used by NEC. He was fielding questions from Members of Parliament. In his supplementary question, Mr Mbowe, who is also the National Chairman of Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (Chadema,) called on the NEC to abandon plans to introduce the new system until all stakeholders’ views were taken on board.
Mr Mbowe called for stakeholders’ involvement from the beginning, including participation in verification of the system’s software. Mr Pinda allayed any fears about the practicality of the BVR and called for Mr Mbowe and other stakeholders to have a faith in the new system, saying the NEC boasts of competent people within its ranks who should be able to take care of the situation in case anything goes wrong.
“Let’s have faith in NEC. But still, I will submit your (Mbowe) views to them for consideration” said Mr Pinda. The NEC Chairman, retired Judge Damian Lubuva, told a delegation from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) recently that a decision had been made to put the system in place before the elections.“Yes, we intend to introduce the biometric electoral system,” he said.
“Adapting a cost-effective and simple technology is a good way of solving election-related problems plaguing many African countries,” Justice Lubuva said. Kenya used BVR kits in the just-concluded elections but they faced technical hitches, leading to the manual identification of voters and registration in the March elections.
Biometric technology can be used to store unique physical characteristics, including fingerprints and facial scans of voters in a database for identification. Justice Lubuva said NEC was planning to float tenders for the acquisition of biometric electoral system, adding that its value was yet to be established.
The NEC chairman refuted claims that the commission was not transparent in the process of acquiring the system. “The whole decision was made by the government, which is our main stakeholder. There is no need of hiding the process from the public. Everything will be known after we complete the whole tendering procedure,” he had observed.
Justice Lubuva said NEC was independent and was not being directed or influenced by anybody. “We are working professionally contrary to what some of our detractors are claiming. We are here to serve Tanzanians, and not any individual or specific group,” he said.
By CHABY BARASA, Tanzania Daily News
