2.3.4 Biometric Voter Registration The Electoral Commission (EC) and political parties agreed to use the biometric voter (BV) cards for the 2012 general elections. The EC has subsequently made the necessary provisions for the use of the biometric voter register (BVR) in its 2012 budget. Government has indicated its strong commitment to the exercise. The Commission awarded a contract for the procurement of equipment for the Biometric Voter Registration exercise to replace the existing manual voters register. The Commission would also acquire electronic verification equipment. To speed up results collation and declaration, the Commission trained staff on transmission of election results through the VSAT Wide Area Network (WAN) that connects the Headquarters to all the 10 regions and 179 district offices nationwide. 2.4 National Identification System The National Identification Authority (NIA) completed the national registration exercise in seven out of the 10 regions. The Authority started the issuance of the national ID cards to registrants in the Greater Accra region during the year. The project has, however, delayed and two years after the start and establishment of the Authority neither the registration exercise nor the issuance of cards have been completed. 2.5 Decentralization 2.5.1 National Decentralization Policy The Government had activated five areas of the policy. These include the political, administrative, planning, fiscal and participation of non-state actors. A number of challenges have been identified: Sixth Annual APRM Progress Report: January – December 2011 10