The national identity registration programme being spearheaded by the National Registration Bureau has put plans to implement biometric systems in limbo, the latest public institution likely to be affected being the Malawi Electoral Commission (Mec).<\/p>\n
Mec, which announced plans to move from the paper-based system of capturing voters\u2019 details to Biometric Voter Registration System before the May 2014 Tripartite Elections but later suspended the programme in March 2013, announced that it would roll out the biometric system in 2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Commission has taken into consideration the various concerns, risks and logistical challenges that are inherent in the implementation of the system and has resolved that the implementation of the Biometric Voter Registration System be used in the 2019 elections. Prior to that, the Commission will conduct comprehensive field tests and civic education programmes on the solution,\u201d Mec chief elections officer, Willie Kalonga, said at the time.<\/p>\n
However, four years before the 2019 elections, Mec has not started conducting the field tests, raising doubts over the future of Biometric Voting System.<\/p>\n
But Mec spokesperson, Sangwani Mwafulirwa, maintained in a written response that the electoral body would decide on the next course of action after consulting the National Registration Bureau.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith support from UNDP [United Nations Development Programme], Mec engaged a team of experts from South Africa who did a baseline survey and validated the need to migrate to biometric voter registration. The consultants also recommended the need for Mec to draw synergies by working together with the National Registration Bureau, which is currently planning to conduct national identity registration.<\/p>\n
\u201cA Joint Project Team has been set up that is working on the modalities of working together and once everything is finalised the two institutions, together with the implementing and supporting partners, will come out to explain to the nation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mwafulirwa maintained that Mec is still interested in implementing the system, describing it as key to resolving issues that hamper effective management of elections.<\/p>\n
He said the electoral body had started strategising on how it could implement the biometric voter registration system.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom our perspective, it is migration to the biometric voter registration system that can help us deal permanently with the challenges of the voters\u2019 register and it is towards this that we are harnessing our energies to achieve,\u201d said Mwafulirwa, adding that \u201cwe are using the paper-based Optical Mark Recognition System (OMR) which has been the cause of the challenges we have faced with the quality of the voters\u2019 register\u201d.<\/p>\n
The development comes after the Ministry of Agriculture, which announced plans to roll out the system in identifying Farm Input Subsidy programme beneficiaries, has kept mum on the same.<\/p>\n
But the development has not surprised Civil Society Agriculture Network national coordinator, Tamani Nkhono- Mvula, who told The Daily Times last week that there are alternative systems that would be as effective as biometric system.<\/p>\n
\u201cCurrently, there are also similar initiatives of using an e-voucher which have proved to be effective and, while we are still piloting the e-voucher system, we want to introduce yet another but costly system of using a biometric. I think it will just be a waste of resources and may at the end not bring the level of efficiency we are looking for.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would also want to suggest that instead of us investing our energy on the biometric system, we should invest in the national identification programme because at the end of the day the national IDs will perform the same duties as a biometric [system] but at the same time an ID will have multiple uses. We can use them at the bank, in hospitals, during elections and many more. That will save a lot of resources,\u201d said Nkhono-Mvula.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The national identity registration programme being spearheaded by the National Registration Bureau has put plans to implement biometric systems in limbo, the latest public institution likely to be affected being the Malawi Electoral Commission (Mec). Mec, which announced plans to move from the paper-based system of capturing voters\u2019 details to Biometric Voter Registration System before […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7625,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7624"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7624\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7626,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7624\/revisions\/7626"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}