The Chairman of the Electoral Commission, Dr. Kwadwo Afari Gyan has announced the date for the commencement of the much-anticipated biometric voter registration ahead of the elections in December. Speaking at a media encounter to brief journalists on the EC’s preparedness for the exercise, the EC boss gave the assurance that the biometric register will be ready for use in the December polls. According to him, the registration exercise will begin on Saturday March 24 and end on Saturday May 5 2012. The nationwide exercise will be carried out in four phases with each phase lasting for a maximum of ten days, weekends inclusive. Phase one of the registration exercise commences on March 24 and ends on April 2 with the second phase continuing almost immediately from April 4 to 13 2012. The third phase of the registration will start on April 15 and end on April 24 with the final phase of the registration running from April 26 to May 5. The 40-day registration exercise will be held at the polling station levels with four polling stations coming together to form a cluster for the registration. As part of the registration process, prospective voters will be required to provide their exact date of birth, their current residential address as well as their hometown address. Applicants will also be be required to show evidence of eligibility to register by providing either a birth certificate, passport, baptismal card, a driver’s license or a national health insurance card, the national I.D card or the existing voter ID card. The prints from all ten fingers of applicants as well as their images will be captured digitally as part of the registration exercise. In the event of an applicant having lost some fingers, the fingerprints of the available fingers will be captured. Special arrangements will also be made for the registration of persons without fingers. After the registration formalities, applicants will receive a new voter’s ID card which contains their photograph and a barcode containing their unique ID card number. According to Dr. Afari Gyan, measures have been taken to ensure that data captured during the registration process is secured. To this end, a technical committee has been set up comprising staff of the EC and representatives from the political parties to examine ways of achieving data security. A pilot project of the biometric registration is expected to be carried out in all the regions at a yet to be announced date.