Resending an article

Dear Friends;
please some of you asked specifically for this first writeup which somehow you missed. 
Yes, I am sending it herein.  Please know that we continue to grow the list as
individuals request to be added. We are at 8914 and growing. We are ready to send to new
members in the list any information you may have missed. also go to my blog at
http://eselekwe.blogspot.com/

Note that all my opinions expressed are in the public domain so can be published by
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Some of my readers have said "Caution". Dear Friends, we cannot be so afraid of what the
evil-filled minds can do to us when we stand out for the truth and for posterity. we must
not be afraid of death because it is the only dignified ride to internal freedom and joy.
Death is an event that will soon be forgotten but the truth for which we stood and died
for will never die.  I appreciate the caution or warning from some of you but caution or
wait from your oppressor means never.

Let me refer us to this quotation of he I celebrate:

"I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight
of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a
reality.... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final
word."  ~Martin Luther King, Jr.

I send light, Peace and Love

Happy Womens' Day

Can biometric voter registration meet pooling date?

Dear Friends

Many of you asked if the biometric voters registration could be done right within the current time frame for the polls to hold as planed.  I tried to answer individually but since this question kept coming in, I have decided to send one short note with my opinion.

Please find the note attached.  Please I am still available to provide further information on the topic.  Also some asked if i can be available to give a talk to your respective groups on biometric voters registration systems. Yes I am available between now and the end of March 2012.  I would have love to do an online webinar (call-in live internet conference) if many of us had access to high speed internet connection.  However, those with broadband and skype installed can organize a call-in with me any day.

About the SMS voter verification technology which many of you seem to be excited about, I also want to reconfirm here  that the ELECAM president

accepted the technology and it will be implemented once the voters registration is starts.

sincerely

Biometric recompilation and SMS voters verification in Cameroon

Biometric recompilation and SMS voters verification in Cameroon

A sound voter registration process is crucial to a successful election. Yet voter registration is also often the most expensive part of conducting elections, and therefore there is a need to look at how cost effective voter registration can be.  There is no ‘one way’ or ‘best way’ to conduct elections and, for that matter, voter registration. What works in one country does not necessarily work in another. Each country has its own political and socioeconomic contexts, its own resource limitations and its own needs to take into consideration when designing a voter registration system. Much attention has been given lately to the use of technology, particularly the use of biometrics, in voter registration. Some argue that biometrics will make the voter registry ‘accurate’ and ‘fool proof ’. But there never can be an absolutely accurate voter register, even in the most developed countries, due to the difficulties of constantly capturing deaths, movements of populations, etc. In addition, biometrics in itself will not increase confidence in a voter registration process if, for example, the entity that conducts voter registration does not have the confidence of the populace as a competent and impartial body. (Craig Jenness)

Those of us involved in electoral assistance must simply be aware of the new pitfalls that technology can introduce. For example, vendors and experts related to them may hide ‘future costs’ when certain technologies are being marketed to election commissions. We should also be aware of who will have rights to the information gathered and the software used. Electoral processes– for both good and bad – become ‘big business’ to a number of entities ( corporate, NGOs and governments alike).

A biometric registration system uses one or a combination of facial and finger prints of individuals as a unique identifier in a voter’s database.  It may be good to know that no two persons have the same finger prints or the same facial formation if digitally analysed. This uniqueness is therefore what is deployed in doing clean electoral registers free of duplicate data.  The biometric information is however not the only unique identifier in such a system.  National identification numbers as well as names sequence and birth information (date of birth, place of birth and parents names) are additional security matching conditions.

Bribery and corruption of elections commissions by big companies and influence by governments related to the allocation of markets for electoral processes are well known facts in many developing countries. For an election to be transparent and acceptable, the election commission itself must be independent, transparent and accountable.

Finally the decision to recompile the electoral list has been announced.  But how realistic is this in terms of time and money?  What is biometric registration in the first place? A lot of persons I talked to simply think that a voters list with pictures and fingerprints means biometric. There is more to this than such a simple definition. But my worry here is “how likely will ELECAM do a biometric registration?" For this to happen within reasonable time before the elections of 2012, the nation will need to deploy a tested technology with over 4000+ fixed and mobile  registration centres or terminals, put in place the required funds to pay for such a service.  Within the 2011 national budget, ELECAM had 11 billions to run the presidential election excluding recompilation of the voters list. In the 2012 budget, ELECAM has 11.5 billion for the twin elections and now including voters’ registration.  Analysts will definitely reach at the conclusion that if the 11 billion Francs CFA allocated for the  2011 was completely used, then the current elections will not be a possibility given the fact that over 10 billion out of the 11.5 billion allocated to ELECAM in the 2012 budget will be allocated for voters registration alone. So the different stakeholders need to know if the budget announced by ELECAM from the government is the 11.5 billion allocated in the finance bill of 2012 or is an additional sum to take care of the recompilation.

I understand so well that by making public the figures may influence pricing of the technology to be deployed but I also think that the public deserve the right to know those figures once the bit has been finalised.  Transparency and accountability should start with the body’s operations.

The same exercise in Nigeria cost 81.9billions Francs and about 18.7 billions in the Philippines. After comparing the cost of the different registration processes in Nigeria, Kenya, Malawi, Lesotho, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Benin, DRC, Mali,  I am more or less certain that if the 2012 elections are based on the current 11.5 billion in the finance bill, it is  likely that we will be heading to a real disappointment.  Also, any move by ELECAM to do another manual recompilation will also be another waste of time and will generate the same problems we are trying to solve.  There are many methods of recompilation ranging from the current manual system through the Optical Mark Readers (OMR)  to the most effective active biometric registration system.

Let me take this time to give very brief description of the different options:

Manual registration (used by MINATD and continued by ELECAM): This is the simplest and the most ineffective system of registration in terms of time and accuracy. With this method, people are deployed to specific registration centres and collect voters’ data on forms or registers. These registers are then sent to the regional centres where they are keyed into a computer with or without a database. This regional data are then sent to the central point where they are merged to form a national electoral list.  In the case of ELECAM for 2011, some form of database was used to input the data. Evidently, this database was so poorly developed that it allowed duplicates with basically zero variance in the data fields.  The fact that the data is collected manually and then typed later; already give a major chance for data entry errors thereby making this the most ineffective and inefficient system of voters registration. In terms of speed of processing, this is the most ineffective. In terms of cost, it’s the cheapest.  In terms of ability to promote fraud, this method has the biggest chances.

DRS ( OMR) used in  Mali,  Kenya, Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone:

This system comprises of specially designed forms that are filled and later scanned into a database by an Optical mark reader (OMR).  The main registration centre receives the completed forms from all over the country and then scanned then into a database.  After all data is captured, it is then matched and duplicates ejected from the system.  While this is comparatively cheaper than the biometric system, it has its own problems. This system will not be able to print voters’ cards on the spot, it takes time and it is also vulnerable to fraud if anyone will so desire to complete additional forms between the registration centers and the final central processes Office.  However, this problem can be solved if all political actors at all the registration centers are given the statistics(eg total number of forms) at the time registration is closing at each of the centers.  These statistics can then be compared to the final voters list when it is finally released.  Also, as a general control, the 2012 election MUST completely make it illegal to add voters’ names in the electoral list manually during the voting process. In Mali, it took 3 months to register 13 million voters using this system.

Inactive Biometric system:

Inactive or passive Biometric registration system uses a non interconnected system that operates a full biometric registration program.  The matching operation to eliminate duplicates is done on each terminal before consolidating into a national database. This system will also be able to print out voters cards on the spot. Because the systems are not interconnected, anyone wishing to register twice can register successfully at different registration centres and receive two different cards.  However, the second matching done when all the different data are brought together( consolidated matching)   will make it possible to identify the duplicates coming from different registration centres.

Eg.  Mr. John Mbah registers in point “A”, get a voters card and rush to point “B” and register again and get the second card. Because point “A” is not communicating with point “B”, this is possible to occur.  However, when the data from point “A” and “B” are eventually brought together and sorted ( marched), John Mbah will be picked by the system as a duplicate and one of the names eliminated. So the passive biometric system is still an effective method

                                                                    

Active biometric registration system:

This system functions exactly like the inactive biometric system but for the fact that all the 4000+ registration centres are connected to a central server in real time via GPRS where mobile phone networks exist and by satellite in zones or villages not covered by mobile phones.  The big advantage here is that the data is sent to the main database in real time and the national matching is done.  This method is the most effective but has its own problems if the GSM network is poor.  Double registration using this system is relatively unlikely as compared to all the other systems.  It is also more expensive in terms of the required technology.

Whichever system is adopted, basic human ethics and moral standing remain a principal factor in ensuring an effective outcome.

Mobile Voter’s verification system

Early this Year, ELECAM also approved a proposal that will allow Cameroonians anywhere in the country to check their names in the electoral list without having to pay Taxi fares, stand in long lines and spend hours looking through thousands of names.  With the mobile verification system, voters will simple send their ID card numbers by SMS to a special short code 8000. The system will verify the ID card in the ELECAM database and send back a response to the voter by SMS stating if the ID card is found in the database or not.  The SMS will also tell the voters all details about his registration such as:

Names:

Polling station:

Date of Birth:

Registration Number:

If the ID is not found, the system will send back an SMS encouraging the voter to verify that the number he sent was correct OR to go to the nearest ELECAM registration centre and get him or herself registered.  This is a great innovation all aimed at contributing to a more transparent election in Cameroon.  This system works wherever you maybe in Cameroon.  This allows potential voters to know their polling stations long before the polling day and hence will reduce the known situation of persons running from one polling station to the other looking for their names.  This system has been tested and is now ready to be deployed once the recompilation begins

However, both systems will be available during this process.

By

Tanyi Christian E
CEO, Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Foundation

Mobile 237 77 94 74 49
Post Box 1348, Limbe, SWR, Cameroon,  Africa
Skype: Christian24035;   E-mail: christian@lukmefcameroon.org 
Website: www.lukmefcameroon.org
Mission: To Promote Peace, Nonviolence, Social Justice and Sustainable Development in Cameroon

Biometric voters Registration and election timing

Biometric voters Registration and election timing

After my last article, many of you requested additional information which I did sent individually based on specific requests. Some of the questions are more general and frequent, so I attempt some answers in this note.

First many of you asked me if it was going to be possible to complete a biometric registration in Cameroon before the twin elections in July.

For a good biometric system, each country must first develop the system specifications, the operational procedures and Terms Of Reference (TORs). These three documents or chapters in the document look at the required outcome (end product), the operational environment, the available infrastructures, the human resource needs and mission critical timeframe. Based on these, the client (in this case  ELECAM) guided by technocrats or informed minds define  the conditions relating to the system suppliers which in most cases include: technical ability of the prospecting company to deliver, track record in biometric registration, cost, timing, durability of equipment, software quality, data matching, data security, transparency etc. 

Now if this internal work is completed by the middle or end of March 2012 and a Request For Proposal announced, it may take two weeks for national or international companies to send in their proposals. It will take a week or so for the ELECAM team to go through the proposals and select potential candidates.  Then the third stage will be for the preselected candidates to be invited to demonstrate their systems for final selection.  This phase is followed by award of the market(s) and it will take at least one month for the equipment to be shipped to Cameroon.

Assuming that the training of registration and polling agents will start before the bulk of the material is supplied; it will take nothing less than 1 month to train 25,000 registration and polling agents.  For this to happen, the supplier must first of all send into Cameroon some of the terminals for use during this training program.

The timeline produced by the above analysis therefore shows that a good biometric system to register 9-10 million voters will take between 2-5 months to implement. Note that when the training is completed and the materials are available, the effective registration process can take less than two weeks to capture all 10 million voters.  This is the duration which many political actors seem to base a lot of their argument of time on.  Based on this and on the fact that voters’ apathy is high and will require extensive mobilization and civic education, my honest opinion and recommendation will be for the elections to be postponed.

Many asked if biometric voters list will contribute to transparent elections in Cameroon. First let me make it clear here that biometric voters registration is just one in a long list of prerequisites to a free, fair and transparent election. It is by no means the lone magic answer. Issues relating to voting material and procedures as listed here must be addressed to accompany the biometric voters list towards a more credible electoral system in Cameroon’s democratic processes. But yes, the biometric is going to contribute greatly to transparency at the polls.

Positive moves so far in the Cameroon electoral system:

• Biometric voters register recompilation
• Unique electoral code in progress
• Online and SMS voters verification accepted
• Open consultation with political actors and stakeholders in progress

The role of these actors in pushing for the above reforms cannot be underestimated even if ELECAM and the government will often say its coming from them out of goodwill.  The work is but just about to begin.  The high voters’ apathy and the high cost and work load needed to drive the current processes cannot be carried by ELECAM alone or the government. Political parties as of now should be active in the field mobilizing and educating their militants towards the eventual recompilation. Civil society known to have the most mastery of the field and skilled in community mobilization will need to be involved and supported in such actions to bring civic education down to the communities especially the rural areas where it is needed the most. They civil society will also need to be involved in the formation of the commissions and teams relating to the voters registration and other aspects of the elections.  Diplomatic missions and funding partners will be required to show their support to this nation and for the sake of peace and stability  support ELECAM technically and otherwise in their mission.  This support will also need to be extended to the civil society and the private media houses towards this election.

Tanyi Christian E
CEO, Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Foundation

E-mail: christian@lukmefcameroon.org 
Website: www.lukmefcameroon.org
Mission: To Promote Peace, Nonviolence, Social Justice and Sustainable Development in Cameroon