3. BIOMETRIC VOTER REGISTRATION’S GROWTH AND APPLICATION IN ELECTORAL PROCESSES IN AFRICA While the use of Biometric identification and verification systems has been around for years in the criminal justice, immigration, and civil registry systems, the application of BVR to elections is recent, gaining traction at the turn of the century. The application of biometrics to electoral processes has increased post the new millennium, and unlike other trends in technological developments and adaptation, where the West tends to lead the rest, it is the South that has taken a lead in the adoption of biometrics in elections. This is evidenced by the fact that the bulk of countries using biometrics in elections are in Africa and Latin America. According to the International IDEA ICTs for Elections database, over 46% of countries in Africa use biometric identification and or verification processes in their electoral processes especially registration, while virtually none in Europe use this application, restricting biometrics, in the main, to civic registry process.5 Most western countries already have welldeveloped citizen registry capacities and had the ability to capture huge amounts of demographic, political, and economic aspects of their polities. These states that have functioned as “Registering Organizations”6 have developed trusted systems that negate the need to switch to biometrics in electoral processes, as the existing citizen registries are solid. Given the above, the introduction of Biometrics, especially Biometric Voter Registration affords an opportunity for using states to ‘leapfrog’ and secure citizen identification. The challenge is that Biometrics are being introduced in situations where reliable records were ‘previously’ absent.7 In this regard, African states introduced Biometrics in elections to “fix” challenges around defective vital statistics and reliable data collection8, more so duplication of voters’ rolls, and accusations of electoral fraud on balloting days as a result of voters’ roll deficiencies. These challenges routinely affect the integrity and credibility of electoral processes in Africa (See table 1 for an outline of reasons for BVR uptake). Table 1. Reasons for Biometric Voter Registration Uptake by User Countries 5 See ICTs In Elections Database at https://www.idea.int/data-tools/data/icts-elections Diamant, N. J., 2001. Making Love ‘Legible’ in China: Politics and Society during the Enforcement of Civil Marriage Registration, 1950-66. Politics & Society 29 (3): 447-480. 7 Gelb, A., Clark, J., 2013. Identification for Development: The Biometrics Revolution. Working Paper 315, Center for Global Development, New York. 8 Setel, P. W., Macfarlane, S.B., Szreter, S., Mikkelsen, L., Jha, P., Stout, S., Abou Zahr, C., 2007. A scandal of invisibility: making everyone count by counting everyone. The Lancet 370 (9598): 1569- 1577. 6 9