THE ELECTORAL Office of Jamaica (EOJ) is expected to chose a single Parish Council division for the experiment with the Cogent fingerprinting system planned for the next Local Government election.
The EOJ has confirmed that it will be using 40 fingerprinting machines on an experimental basis during the election, expected by next March. But, the 40 machines would account for much less than one per cent of the over 6,000 polling stations and a spokesman for the EOJ confirmed yesterday, that they would not want to cover less than all the polling stations in any division chosen for the experiment.
Director of Elections, Danville Walker, confirmed at a Lions Club of Kingston luncheon at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, New Kingston, on Wednesday that the fingerprint identification machines would be used on an experimental basis during the Local Government election, in an effort to hold "cleaner" elections.
The Government provided the Electoral Advisory Committee (EAC) with the funding, in its 2002-2003 Budget, to conduct a test of the Electronic Identification of the Voter and Ballot Issuing System (EIVBIS), however, the system could not be ready for use in the October general election.
EAC chairman, Professor Errol Miller, attributed the delay to technical and legal problems.
Cogent was selected by the Electoral Advisory Committee (EAC) to supply the 40 machines that will be used in the experiment at a cost of US$482,000 (J$22.65m).
At the end of the exercise, the EAC and the EOJ may proceed to spend US$16.1 million (J$756.7m), the overall cost of the system. At which time, up to 4,000 machines would be purchased.
A breakdown of the figure shows that US$2.2 million would be spent on software, management and training and US$13.9 million for the hardware.
The EAC is expected to look at several options during the experimental stage before a final decision is taken. The option will then be to either, go islandwide with the system; confine it to designated areas; or run the election manually, and where discrepancies occur, use the machines in a subsequent election.
With roughly 6,300 polling stations in 2,600 polling locations across the island, more than 3,000 persons would have to be trained to operate the machines.
If electronic voting becomes a reality, it would represent the final phase in the electoral reform process which began with creating what the EOJ now describes as the cleanest voters' list in the country's history.
