Nigeria To Require Face and Fingerprint Biometrics for State Election

Ahead of the 6 November governorship election in Anambra State, Nigeria, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared that each voter has to enrol their identity in its Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS).

On the Anambra Governorship Election, INEC Chairman Prof Mahmood Yakubu said the Commission will use the next few weeks to compile the register of voters for claims and objections, clean up the data, print the Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) for collection by registrants and compile the register for each of the 5,720 polling units in the state.

He said the Commission has also been continually innovating on how to strengthen the credibility of voter accreditation and result management during elections.

According to him, many stakeholders, including leaders of political parties, had called on the Commission to strengthen the voter accreditation process during elections, especially in incidents where the Smart Card Reader (SCR) fails to authenticate the fingerprints of a voter.

‘Such concern is legitimate given the fact that the SCR successfully verifies any card that belongs to the polling unit for which it is configured irrespective of who presents it. Their apprehension, therefore, is that using the incident form to cover those whose fingerprints are not authenticated by the SCR, a voter may be able to use another person’s PVC to vote during an election,’ he said.

‘To address this concern, the Commission attempted to introduce the facial biometric authentication during accreditation of the voters using a tablet to complement the fingerprint process through the Card Reader before the Edo Governorship election in September 2020. However, the Commission was not entirely satisfied with the pilot held in the Nasarawa Central State Constituency by-election a month earlier in August 2020. We, therefore, suspended the idea to enable us to do some more work. Over the previous year, we reviewed the situation, and we think we have found the appropriate technology to address it’.

The functionality of the tablet has now been integrated into the system currently used for voter registration. On Election Day, the same device will be used for the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for fingerprint authentication during accreditation and where it fails for facial authentication.

‘We believe that this multi-layer process will eliminate the possibility of voting by identity theft using another person’s PVC. Where the voter fails both the fingerprint and facial authentication, he/she will not be allowed to vote. In other words, no electronic authentication, no voting’, he continued.

Guaranteeing the credibility of elections

Prof Yakubu says they are convinced that the new machine is robust enough to further guarantee the credibility of voter authentication and transparent management of results during elections. Accordingly, the Commission intends to carry out a pilot exercise using the new device in Delta State during the Isoko South 1 State Assembly constituency byelection. The BVAS will now perform the functions of both the SCR and tablet in the by-election. Thereafter, it will be deployed in the Anambra Governorship election in November, he added.

Separate to the issues of voter identity and preventing electoral fraud, Prof Yakubu again lamented the growing number of conflicting court orders and judgments which are being sought by politicians that are making the job of the INEC more difficult.