The Electoral Commission (EC) has announced plans to procure more verification machines to be stationed at various zonal electoral areas. This forms part of the commission’s preparations towards smooth election in December 2012. According to the Director of Human Resource and General Services, Samuel Yorke Aidoo, the move is to cater for any possible breakdown of the equipment on voting day. He said the procurement should also avert a recurrence of the several problems they faced during the biometric registration process earlier this year. “Haven gone through the registration which was challenging, the verification definitely will also present its own challenges but we don’t anticipate that the challenges related to the verification will be that difficult,” Samuel Yorke Aidoo said. Unlike the machines used for the registration process which sometimes broke down, the verification machines, he assured, “is handheld, one machine without any connections so we anticipate that it may not give us that serious challenge…” He, however, added that the EC is making arrangements to procure backups at electoral and zonal levels so that they can make quick interventions in case there is any breakdown.