Mass Biometric Voter registration – Lessons from Kenya
By Ellen Dingani
ELECTIONS today are unarguably the most preferred way to elect leaders the world over. Credible, free
and fair elections give legitimacy to elected leaders and as such if leaders fail to represent the interests
of those who voted them into power, it is incumbent on voters to reject them through elections. Over
the years we have seen the introduction of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in the
administration of elections. The introduction of Biometric Voter Registration and Biometric Voter
Identification on e-day being is a new trend to most in African countries. Electronic voting is not yet so
popular in Africa with the exception of Namibia which was the first African country to try electronic
voting.
Recently, ZESN observed the Mass Voter Registration process in Kenya, where Kenyans were registering
using the Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) system which Zimbabwe is about to adopt for the 2018
Elections. The learning missions to Kenya was an eye opener especially given that Kenya was doing the
BVR exercise for the second time before a major election having done BVR prior to their 2013 elections.
Although the 2013 voter registration exercise proceeded relatively smoothly, problems emerged on
election-day and these included the failure of the majority of the verification kits on polling day and the
mobile phone transmission of results also broke down owing to a server system failure. The
Independent Election and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) had set a voter registration target of 18. 2
million for the 2013 elections but managed to register only 14.3 million (79% of target). Out of the 14.3
million registered voters, 12.2 million (85.90%) took part in the 2013 General Elections and 2 million
(14.09%) did not turn out to vote. Local CSOs said on Election Day, the Electronic Voter Identification
Devices (EVID) which uses fingerprint biometric to identify a voter failed to work in 52% or the polling
stations. This led to accusations of rigging and contributed to the losing candidate, Raila Odinga rejecting
the election results. His case was however ultimately rejected by the Supreme Court.
So unlike the Kenyans who have incorporated ICTs and Biometrics in some of the three critical electoral
processes, i.e. registration, verification of voters and transmission of results, Zimbabwe has decided to
take a small step and start with the voter registration using biometrics, a process which will culminate in
a new voters’ roll. If done properly, the new voter registration exercise will deal with a number of
challenges that were noted in the previous elections in Zimbabwe such as the disenfranchisement of
potential voters due to insufficient information on voter registration procedures and requirements,
inadequate funding to the Commission and supporting stakeholders such as civic society, lack of
adequate personnel and the slow processing of registration queues.
Clear baseline, targets and timelines critical
For planning purposes by all stakeholders, there is need for clear timelines and targets. The Independent
Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) conducted a baseline study which enabled the Commission
to set clear targets in terms of estimated number of people that would be registered per each county.
For the recent Mass Voter Registration exercise, which ran from 16 January 2017 to 14 February 2017,
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