USE THE “IRIS” AS BIOMETRIC MODALITY FOR THE NEW VOTER REGISTER- LECTURER SUGGESTS.

By:brightwebtv.com/nana asare barimah

A lecturer at Christian Service University College in the computer science department in the Kumasi metropolis of the Ashanti region , Mr. John Kwao Dawson has suggested to the Electoral Commission of Ghana to use IRIS as the biometric modality for the upcoming voter registration rather than using the finger print and facial recognition.

According to Mr. Kwao Dawson in an exclusive interview with brightwebtv.com he said, the basis for the new register is to avoid manual verification of voter which undermines the prime purpose of the entire biometric idea. The employment of the finger print and facial recognition has the shortfall of also promoting manual verification of voters because at any point there are three conditions which will occur.

He added that, these conditions are False Negative, False Positive and the Normal verification
False Negative occurs for Finger Print verification, where the voter registered but as a result of distortion in the finger contours could not be verified. This might happen as a result of hard work involving the use of the fingers, creams, handling hot materials and the like. In this regard, the voter would have to be verified manually making the objective of the new voter register been defeated.
Again, as a result of aging and decoration of the face leaving hairs on the face will also lead to false negative.
To add to that, facial recognition fails with dark skin people. Readers can visit https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-49993647
False Positive on the other hand occurs for Facial Recognition. This occurs most under conditions where there is impersonation. This is when two people look alike. The person can be verified. This condition will also call for manual verification making the objective of the new voter registration defeated.
In view of the above, the modality which will help curb both False Positive and False Negative is the use of IRIS modality. The IRIS of an individual remains the same throughout the life of the person. To our brothers and sisters who are visually challenged, they can still be registered since the iris of the person will still be present.
In view of these, I would want to crave the indulgence of stake holders to advice the Chair of the Electoral Commission to employ a better and lasting technology which will save the country of recurring budget on voter registration.

Source:brightwebtv.com/nana asare barimah