The Independent Electoral Commission says it will resort to the national voters register just in case the Biometric Verification system fails to work in the upcoming national elections.
While speaking at the Jinja road based Electoral Commission offices, the Spokesperson, Jotham Talemwa explained that should the Biometric Voters’ Verification system BVVS fail, the commission will revert to manual system of using the physical national voters register.
On Tuesday, the Electoral Commission launched the new system which the commission said would help reduce flaws and ensure free and fair elections.
According to EC officials the biometric system that has been fed with data for every eligible voter will be verified through us of fingerprints, will only allow registered voters and in case of multiple voting, the machine would be able to notify the polling officials.
However the system came under attack by various stake holders expressing worries on whether the commission had the capacity to effectively use the biometric system to hold a free and fair election.
One of them was independent Presidential candidate, Amama Mbabazi, of the Go-Forward pressure group who questioned the effectiveness of the system as far as finger prints is concerned.
“Myself I have a problem with my finger prints. Sometimes my finger prints are reflected and sometimes they are rejected,” he said.
He further wondered what would be done in cases where some people who are registered voters with National Identity cards have their finger prints.
The Go-0Forward Presidential candidate warned the electoral Commission against favoring one system against the other.
It is against this background that the Electoral Commission is providing an alternative of the national voters register in case of the break down.
