The Cameroon News

March 28, 2012

Business

Battle for Cameroon's biometric voting contract opens

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The final battle to get the company that would do the biometric recompilation of electoral registers in Cameroon goes public tomorrow when the five enterprises bidding for the job will be required to demonstrate how they would it.

A source at the elections organising body ELECAM told Africa Review Wednesday that of the five companies angling for the contract, three are French, one South African and the other a group of Cameroonian computer engineers.

“The intention here is to get the bidders to demonstrate their capabilities by biometrically registering twenty prospective voters who will include men, women and handicapped persons and deliver to each and every one of them a registration receipt or a voter’s card,” said the official.

They would also have to process the information received and print a sample electoral list as well as samples of electronically secure voter’s cards and a statistical report on the registered voters according to age, sex and/or physical conditions of the electors.

The selected bidder would sign a contract with ELECAM to supply the biometric materials, training of ELECAM personnel and followup on the electoral lists, according to ELECAM Director-General Mohaman Sani Tanimou.

The Cameroonian engineers who are in the bidding expressed concern of possible French pressure to win the contract.

Cameroonian enterprise

On March 23, they held a public demonstration of the biometric registration technology and machines at their disposal and did actually register some Cameroonians biometrically. The demonstration involved on-the-spot issuance of biometric voter’s cards to the individuals.

A spokesperson for the Cameroonian engineers revealed that using the technology at their disposal, they could biometrically register up to eight million voters within ninety days.

Article source Africa Review, posted on The Cameroon News under Cameroon Business News