Population-Level ID Management

Biometrics offer a leap-frogging opportunities for countries to learn about their own populations. In the same way that the cell phone revolution propelled African countries into a more interconnected world at a fraction of the cost of a land-line network, biometrics offer opportunities for emerging democracies to develop the ID infrastructure that elections depend upon at a lower cost than older democracies had to bear.

Ghana: Census figures must be published now (The Statesman)

The compilation of a new voter register will surely ensure multiple registration is avoided and will lead to a further enhancement of Ghana’s electoral process.

In 2008, the rig-sayers were helped by the admission on the part of the Electoral Commissioner that the voter register was massively bloated. Ghana, with a population of less than 23 million people, said it had a voter population of some 10 million.

Not only does a bloated register give political parties the opportunity to rig elections, they also give rig-sayers the legitimacy to say to their supporters and sympathisers that they have been cheated and that they should stand up and resist – whether the claim is true or false. This is what characterised the 2008 general elections in Ghana