Somaliland becomes the first country in the world to adopt voting with ‘Eyes’

shakirudeen taiwo

November 14, 2017 6:21 PM

This technology is most needed in Nigeria, and other African countries to help curb electoral malpractice.

The people of Somaliland have achieved a fate yet to be done any other in the world as its uses iris recognition-based biometric voting system to conduct its third presidential poll on Monday, November 13, 2017.

Somaliland is a self-administered region in the Northern region of Somalia. The region is more tribally homogeneous and more stable than the rest of Somalia. It has also been seeking to attain political and international recognition since 1991.

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The Iris machine scans the eye of the intending voters to verify his/her registration status. After which, an accredited voter is allowed to cast his/her vote.

The machines have been put to trials since 2015, as part of plans for the election held on November 13. With its success during the trial, Somaliland becomes the first country in Africa and world to use this system.

Somaliland also blocked social media during this elections to curtail fake news and rumours that may destabilise the process.

With the successful use by Somaliland, it is expected that many African countries such as Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana among others would seek ways of advancing the deployment of technology in electoral processes.

These countries are only using fingerprint biometric voting system to identify registered voters and for verification of voters during elections.

shakirudeen taiwo

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