The Electoral Commission (EC), says it is conducting internal investigations into the possession of a Biometrics Verification Device (BVD) by an unauthorised person.
It said it was working with the police to conclude the matter.
A statement issued and signed by Mr. Samuel Tettey, the EC’s Deputy Chairman, Operations, said the stolen BVD would not jeopardise the integrity of the 2024 Elections.
The EC said that the stolen BVD was nothing more than an off-the-shelf device that could not be used to compromise an election without the necessary technical and safety controls.
It said that five computers used in Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) were stolen from their stores in April 2024, along with seven BVDs, five from the Tarkwa Nsuaem District and two from the North Tongu District, during the December 2023 District Level Elections (DLES).
‘The Commission undertakes a deliberate process of preparing a Biometric Verification Device (BVD) for any election that ensures that only BVDs that are prepared for a p
articular election can be used for that election.
‘This process is robust and is not vulnerable to manipulation. The possession of a BVD that has not gone through this rigorous process that is yet to happen for the 2024 election does not affect the integrity of the election,’ it said.
According to the Commission, the BVD’s were designed to only work with data that had been prepared, audited, encrypted, and signed using a secure process.
It said that access to that process had been highly restricted, and that without access to the secure process, voter data could not be generated for use with the BVD.
‘The Data that is loaded onto the BVDs are set to be activated for a particular Election Day. A stolen BVD therefore cannot work in the December 2024 Elections,’ the Commission said.
The Commission explained that as part of its startup process, the BVD would verify the integrity of the data stored onto it, and if the voter data was altered in any manner, the device would terminate the process and cease to fu
nction.
It also said that activating the BVDs would need the use of Activation Codes that could only be retrieved from the EC’s Secure System, which was only accessible to election officials with the required access credentials.
‘A BVD without its Activation Code cannot be used for the verification of Voters. The Data that is loaded onto the BVD must conform with the details of Voters on the Voters Register for each Polling Station,’ it said.
Source: Ghana News Agency