Biometric technology to be used in Afghan election

In this file photo, an Afghan election official empties a ballot box to count the numbers of ballots on the first day of the counting process inside the United Nations compound at Herat airport, Sept. 20, 2005. (AFP)

KABUL: As part of a move to minimize fraud, and meeting a key demand of the opposition alliance, Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission (IEC) on Saturday said it will use biometric technology during next month’s parliamentary election.
The move comes days after the closure of several IEC offices in major cities by loyalists of the Grand National Coalition of Afghanistan (GNCA), which raised further skepticism about the government’s ability to hold the long-delayed election amid a rise in militant attacks and ethnic tensions.
The parliamentary election will be followed by a presidential one in April in which President Ashraf Ghani will stand. 
Past foreign-funded elections convened since the Taliban’s ouster in 2001 were mired by allegations of fraud.
The GNCA, which includes former and current key officials in Ghani’s government, said the use of biometric technology blocks voters from voting multiple times.
Hafizullah Hashimi, a commissioner at the IEC, said the government has bought biometric technology from a German firm.
The equipment will arrive in early October, and will be placed in 21,000 sites ahead of voting day, he added.
“It’s easy to use and to train people,” he told Arab News. “It can work offline or online, and can pass data directly to the IEC data center.”
Mohammad Nateqi, a senior member of the GNCA, told Arab News that the biometric system “brings transparency,” adding: “This is a good thing and we welcome it.”
The GNCA hopes to have a trilateral meeting with the government and the firm that will put in place the biometric technology, he said.
Habibullah Shinwari, a senior member of the Election and Transparency Watch Organization of Afghanistan (ETWA), expressed doubt that the government and the IEC will be able to put the equipment in place in time for the election.
“Logically and technically it isn’t possible. This is only aimed at calming down the opposition to reopen the (IEC) offices it closed,” he told Arab News.