The Electoral Commission (EC) says it has awarded the contract for the construction of the new Production and Disaster Recovery Datacentre to Persol Systems Limited, which has begun the processes for construction.
The telecommunication giant, MTN, has also secured the contract to provide network or internet connectivity services to the various district offices of the Commission.
The selection was made following a successful international competitive tender process and the subsequent shortlisting of bidders last year, in compliance with the Public Procurement Act regulations.
Mr Samuel Tettey, the Deputy Chairperson in charge of Operations at the EC, announced this at a briefing of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in Accra, to justify EC’s decision to compile new voters’ register and Biometric Voter Management Solution (BVMS) ahead of the December 7 Elections.
The meeting provided the opportunity for the Commission to take feedback and input from the CSOs in order to enhance the electoral process.
Mr Tettey, in a presentation, said the compilation of a new voter register and acquisition of Biometric Verification Devices (BVDs) would enhance the credibility, integrity and transparency of the December 7 Parliamentary and Presidential elections.
He said based on the assessment conducted by two independent biometric consultants on the current biometric system, it concluded that, the current biometric system was obsolete and risky to rely upon for the general election in view of the 47 per cent failure rate.
Additionally, the EC paid US$4 million to the Vendor, Superlock Technologies Limited (STL) annually for maintenance of the biometric solution, thus, describing it as a drain on the public purse.
He said the EC spent two million Ghana cedis to repair the BVDs before they were deployed for the District Level Elections in December 17, last year.
In view of that, Mr Tettey explained, the EC decided to procure new BVDs and biometric kits that are modern, reliable, robust and affordable for the December 7 Elections, to safeguard the integrity and credibility of the elections.
Mr Tettey said due to the proprietary format of the old biometric system data, the EC could not migrate all that data into a new system; hence it was prudent to acquire a new biometric solution that could capture the fingerprints and facial images of registrants clearly.
Making a comparison between upgrading the old biometric system and securing a new one, Mr Tettey said the Commission would have to spend US$15 million to upgrade a new biometric system, while only six million dollars was required to buy a new one.
Reacting to some misconceptions being peddled by critics of the new biometric voter register, Mr Tettey said it was not the first time a new voter register was being compiled in an election year, and cited the year 2004, when a new voter register was compiled before the elections.
On the assertion that ECOWAS Protocol prohibited the compilation of a new register in an election year, he said, the Protocol rather stated that there should not be any changes to the electoral laws six months to the election.
On the cost of compiling a new register, Mr Tettey argued that the EC spent GH¢490 million to conduct the Limited Registration in 2016 with only 800,000 voters captured, but the Commission would only spend about GH¢390 million this time around to register between 13 and 16 million eligible voters.
Mrs Jean Mensa, the Chairperson of the EC, in her welcome remarks, said the Commission conducted a market survey to ascertain the prices of items needed for the registration in order to ensure value for money, as well as the judicious use of public resources.
She said the meeting would enable the Commission to consider their feedback and input into the electoral process to build a robust and credible electoral system.
Some participants lauded the EC for providing a platform for them to express their views and concerns and urged all stakeholders to support the Commission to compile a new voter register.
Others, however, called for more public sensitization to explain the rationale for a new voter register.
Source: GNA
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THERE SHOULD BE AN URGENT ORDINATION BETWEEN NIA AND EC SO THAT GHANA CARD IS USED FOR THE ELECTORAL REGISTER. WHAT IS THE SENSEEEE TO ACQUIRING NEW EQUIPEMENT TO START NEW REGISTRATION FOR ELECTION. AT WORST ADDITIONAL EQUIPMENT AND PERSONNEL SHOULD BE GRANTED TO NIA TO WORK FASTER TO COMPLETE ITS WORK. MY GOD. IS ANYBODY THINKING IN GHANA, I AM SORRY. WHAT A WASTE SOCIETY. HOW CAN WE GROW WHEN WE DONT HAVE VALUE FOR MONEY. WE WASTE SO MUCH FOR NOTHING. YES, EC MAY SAVE A LOT OF MONEY BY NEW EQUIPEMENT FOR NEW REGISTER BUT THAT CANNOT BE BETTER THAN SUPPORTING NIA TO PROVIDE THE DATA BASE TO BE EXTRACTED FOR EC REGISTER. THE LATTER MAY COST ALMOST NOTHING. PLEASE, DEAR EMINENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE, DO SOMETHING TO SAVE THE NATIONS THE COST FOR NEW EQUIPMENT FOR NEW REGISTER. CALL TOGETHER THE EC TECHNICIANS AND GHANAIAN TECHNICIANS AT HOME AND ABROAD WHO CAN HELP TO MAKE NIA DATA BASE AVAILABLE AND APPLICABLE FOR 2020 ELECTIONS. GHANA CARD CANNOT HAVE ANY BETTER IMPORTANCE WHATSOEVER THAN TO BE USE FOR ELECTIONS. WHATEVER PROBLEMS NIA HAVE NOW CANNOT BE WORSE THAN WHAT A NEW REGISTRATION CARD FOR ELECTION MAY HAVE. ANY PROBLEM FOR GHANA CARD TODAY CAN BE RESOLVE FASTER AND BETTER THAN THE UNKNOWN PROBLEM THAT NEW ELECTORAL REGISTRATION CARD MAY CAUSE. IN FACT IF A NEW CARD IS MADE FOR ELECTION MANY PEOPLE MAY NOT FIND IT IMPORTANCE TO COLLECT THEIR GHANA CARD FROM NIA, ANOTHER WASTE. THOUGH THE PRODUCTION AND ACQUISITION OF GHANA CARD HAS NO TIME BOUND A DEADLINE CAN BE SET TO SEAL THE DATE FOR THE EXTRACTION OF THE ELECTORAL REGISTER. EAC MUST HELP TO BRING ALL RELATED TECHNICAL MINDS OF EC, NIA AND OTHER GHANAIANS EITHER HOME AND ABROAD TOGETHER TO FORMULATE WHAT IS NEEDED TO ACCOMPLISH A CREDIBLE ELECTIONS. THEIR FINDINGS AND PROPOSALS MUST BE BROUGHT BEFORE EC, POLITICAL PARTIES, CIVIL SOCIETIES IN A SHORT POSSIBLE TIME. THOUGH THIS IS NOT IMAGINED, WHEN ALL BECOME INVOLVED WE CANNOT BLAME EC FOR ANY DELAY SHOULD IN CASE IT HAPPENS SO BECAUSE THIS IS GHANA PROJECT AND NOT ONLY EC PROJECT. WE WANT WHAT IS BEST FOR GHANA AT A REASONABLE MINIMUM COST. THE EARLY WE START WORKING TOGETHER THE BETTER IT IS FOR ALL OF US. ONE MAY ASK WHY SHOULD WE DO ALL THIS ONLY WHEN NPP IS IN GOVERNMENT AND NOT NDC WHO IS ALWAYS ALLOWED TO HAVE A FIELD DAY? MY ANSWER IS THAT AS PARENTS WE ADVICE OOR CHILDREN WHO TAKE ADVISE. WE DON'T WASTE OUR TIME ON THOSE WHO DO NOT APPRECIATE THE VALUE FOR REASONING. NPP MUST ALSO KNOW THAT THEY ARE DOING ALL FOR GHANA AND THEY MUST GIVE WHAT IS THE BEST TO THE FUTURE GENERATION WHETHER THEY ARE IN POWER OR NOT. NO GOOD DEED GOES UNREWARDED. WE NEVER HEARD OF EAC DURING NDC TIME BUT NPP IN THEIR WISDOM HAVE ESTABLISHED IT. WE MUST SUPPORT IT TO WORK FOR ALL.
Eminent Advisory Committee must invite National Identification Authority to the meeting of the Political Parties and the Electoral Commission to deliberate on the new register for elections.
GHANAIANS SHALL NOT AGREE TO ANY POSTPONEMENT OF THE DECEMBER GENERAL ELECTIONS IF EC FAILS TO DELIVER ACCORDING TO ELECTION TIME TABLE. ACTIVITIES OF SOME POLITICAL PARTIES MAY BECOME A DISTRACTION TO TO EC YET IT CANNOT BECOME AND EXCUSE FOR EC NOT TO ACT. NDC HAS REFUSE TO TO GIVE IN TO REASON. THE REASONS OFFERED BY EC IS ENORMOUS TO SUPPORT THE CHANGE. 1. THERE ARE NEW REGIONS DEMANDING NEW CODE. 2. LACK OF SUFFICIENT CREDIBILITY OF THE OLD REGISTER 3. NHICARD IDENTIFICATION IS ILLEGAL 4. ROPAA TO BE WELL CONSIDERED 5.MANUAL VERIFICATION PROBLEM TO BE ELIMINATED AND SUPPORTED WITH FACIAL 6 COST BENEFIT. LESS EXPENSIVE FOR THE NEW SYSTEM 7 EFFICIENCY OF THE NEW IT STAND TO REASON THAT THE NEW REGISTER IS MORE EFFICIENT