ECP wants iris scan to ensure greater poll transparency

ISLAMABAD:

Election authorities have proposed to look into the option of biometric identification of voters through iris recognition to ensure greater transparency in the election process, which at present is based on a manual voting system.

The officials of Election Commission of Pakistan on Wednesday gave a briefing to the parliamentary committee on electoral reforms on pros and cons of using iris scanning for voting. They also discussed the option of using biometric identification through thumb impression.



A sub-committee of the parliamentary panel on electoral reforms is vetting thousands of proposals put forward by different political parties and election related organisations to reform the electoral system.

An official of the ECP told The Express Tribune that in the thumb impression process, the system sometimes does not recognise a person whose thumb impression ridges fade. This happens mostly with the people who do manual labour.

The official said iris biometric is considered more authentic. “However, it is yet to be ascertained whether National Database Registration Authority system can support it or not,” he added.

Iris recognition is an automated method of biometric identification that uses mathematical pattern-recognition techniques on video images of one or both of the irises of an individual's eyes.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 11^th, 2015.