Ghana's 2012 election goes bio-metric...

Ghana's Electoral Commission has revealed a budget of  243 Mn Cedi (~$144 Mn) to conduct this year's presidential and parliamentary election. Of this over 60 percent will be spent on the creation of a bio-metric voter register. This will involve the finger-printing of every eligible Ghanaian voter, and generation of new photographic ID cards. The voter registration process will be rolled out across the country between 24 March and 25 May.

The EU have contributed over 7 Mn Euros to the registration exercise, which includes money to be spent on educating voters on the new registration process. A pilot of the process has begun in the Northern region.