Jubilee Party launches Smart Card to eliminate fraud in member registration.
As smart cards become more and more globally prevalent, organizations and even governments are starting to discover a number of new niches where they’re applicable. In Kenya, the Jubilee Party has launched its own smart card aimed at ensuring the party conducts a free and fair nomination exercise to be held in May 2017.
The smart card was launched by President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto at Kasarani Stadium yesterday.
The smart membership card contains the Jubilee party Member’s name, identity number, mobile phone number and voting details such as the polling station and will ensure no one votes twice during the nomination. To ensure supporters are duly registered as members and registered voters, the card is also connected to the database of the Registrar of Political Parties as well as integrated with Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) voter register database.
This means, all members belonging to the party who would wish to participate in the nomination exercise will have to acquire the card.
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To activate the card, a member will have to send a text message with the word ‘ACCEPT’ to 30553. They will then be prompted to complete the registration by sending their name, card number, and identity card number.
The use of smart cards to improve the democratic process has gained global attention in recent times. The use of electronic voting (e-voting) has also increased drastically. The process uses smart cards to ensure that only eligible voters take place in the election process.
This move to use smart cards, according to the head of Jubilee Party secretariat Raphael Tuju will revolutionize the country’s politics. “For the first time, a party in Africa has used a smart card for membership registration. The method seeks to eliminate fraud and ensure voters elect leaders of their choice,”
The card will be available to members for Kshs. 20 a piece.
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