The Electoral Commissioner says her outfit has not abolished the biometric verification system for the upcoming elections.

Charlotte Osei was speaking at a workshop on election reporting organised by the Kofi Annan International keeping Training Centre, Thursday. 

There is a new Electoral Commission Constitutional Instrument (CI) laid before Parliament, which is in the process of going through its mandatory 21 day period to mature into law to regulate the conduct of the 2016 elections. 

In the instrument is the annulment of the no verification, no vote rule which was used in the 2012 elections under the CI 75 law.

Going by that rule all registered voters are expected to be verified by a biometric machine before they are allowed to vote.

In the 2012 elections, some voters were disenfranchised completely while others, largely the influential people within some constituencies  were favoured to vote despite a challenge by the verification machine to capture them.

The No Verification, No Vote (NVNV) rule became one of the major issues raised by the New Patriotic Party which challenged the outcome of the elections at the Supreme Court.

Ahead of the 2016 elections, the Electoral Commission is seeking to change the NVNV rule to make it possible for voters to cast their ballots if the machines fail to capture their details.

Section 31 (5) of the new document, Public Election Regulation, 2016, said "Where the biometric verification device fails to verify a voter and the red light is shown with a voice message "REJECTED" the polling assistant shall;

(a) inform the agents of the political parties present at the polling station"

The voter will then be allowed to vote if all the agents agree. This has been criticised by some people as a recipe for disaster.

However, Madam Osei says the EC has only made room for individuals who are not biometrically verified to be verified manually.

She also accused the media of creating a negative image about the Commission. 

Earlier Thursday, the pressure group, Let My Vote Count Alliance (LMVCA) dismissed the EC's recent announcement that names of over 56,700 names of National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) card registrants have been expunged from the electoral roll.

The group would however not provide evidence of its claim against the Commission, but explains it is only committed to guarding the polls during November's Presidential and Parliamentary elections.