Electoral Commission Press Release:  All BVR kits are brand new

The Electoral Commission of Ghana has indicated that all Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) Kits in use for the ongoing voter registration exercise are new. This is to correct the information out there that, some old BVRs have been deployed by the Commission to some electoral areas. 

The statement indicated that some persons have decided to mislead the public as far as the work of the Electoral Commission is concerned. The commission has indicated that such information indicating that old verification machines have been deployed to polling stations is wrong and should be disregarded. 

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I have also indicated that the commission would not ignore the falsehood being peddled hence its decision to inform all stakeholders about the truth and facts of the case. 

  For the avoidance of doubt, all Kits currently in use for the Registration Excercise are BRAND NEW. There is not a single old obsolete Kit in the field. One would have thought that the individuals making the assertion would have indicated in the report where they saw the old kits being used. The EC is challenging the authors of the misleading reports, to name the centres where the old kits are being used for the benefit of the good people of Ghana. The statement said.

According to the Electoral Commission of Ghana, some 8500 Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) Kits were acquired by the EC from Thales and that it has received all of them which have been deployed for the compilation of the new voters register ahead of the 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections slated for December 7th, 2020.

The EC further revealed that the brand new Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) Kits can be differentiated from the old ones based on the

1. Size  – The new ones are smaller than the old kits

2. Portability – The new Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) Kits are easy to move around 

3. Handles – The new BVR kits have three red handles whiles the old ones have two

4. Location of Kit ID and QR Codes- The new ones have their Kit ID numbers and QR codes in front while the old and obsolete ones don’t have these features.

5. Charging point – Each new Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) Kit has a charging component located at the front. It has two LED alert lights, however, the old one has none.

6. Record tracking – The new Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) Kits issues daily printout for all data collected, making it easier to verify and keep political parties updated. 

The components of the kit are not taken out before they can be used and also have the Electoral Commission logo on it, unlike the old one. 

The EC hopes that the information it has provided will help all Ghanaians to identify the machines and to ensure the falsehood is dealt with. 

However, as at the time of this publication, our checks on the EC site showed that the website was down. 

Source: Electionsinghana.com