Chairman of the Electoral Commission of Ghana, Dr. Kwadwo Afari Gyan has corroborated evidence given by witness for the first and third respondents, Johnson Asiedu Nketia over what constituted biometric verification in the last general elections.
In the witness box to represent the second respondents on Thursday, Dr. Afari Gyan explained that there is evidence on the voters’ register that people could vote without putting their fingers in the verification machine.
“Some of the persons who apply for registration did not have fingers at all and we classified this group of persons as persons who are suffering from ‘permanent trauma’ in the sense that we don’t think they can get their fingers back ever.”
According to the Dr Afari Gyan there were also people who had fingers but the machine couldn’t pick their finger prints. “Some people tried for days but the machine could not pick their finger prints; they physically had fingers but the machine couldn’t pick their finger prints. So we classified these people as people who are suffering from ‘temporary trauma’.”
He said these two groups of people (Permanent Trauma and Temporary Trauma) are known to the voters register and the biometric verification device. “When they appear in the register, they will have the letters FO against their names or when during elections their data is scanned their picture will pop up on the verification device ad there will be on that screen alongside the picture FO. And FO means Face Only (FO) verification, so it is not true that verification is limited to finger print verification alone.”
The Electoral Commission Chairman also debunked the figures given by the petitioners as representing the number of Face Only registered voters.
The petitioner’s star witness, Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia in his testimony said there were 3,196 people who registered as FOs, but Dr Afari Gyan said “I don’t know where he got that figure from; the figure is well over 70,951.”
“An earlier figure was given which is lower than this. The new figure had gone up by 62 following the registration of people in the Kassena Nankana District following the order of the High Court,” he said.
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