NA-256: Miscounting or Software Error

On Oct-07-2013, The National Database Registration Authority or NADRA submitted its report of thumbprint verification for NA-256 (Karachi) to the election tribunal. Few weeks ago, NADRA also submitted a similar report for NA-258 (Karachi) to the election tribunal. Data on both reports shows substantial irregularities in both constituencies during the May, 11th general elections.

Data on both reports for both constituencies (NA-256 & NA-258) looks distinct at first glance but, when subjected to a thorough analysis, the data of both constituencies (NA-256 & NA-258) is almost identical.  

The results are shown in the Table.  

	NA 258	NA256	NA 258 in percentage	NA256 in percentage	Difference in percentage
Total Verified Votes	2,475	6,815	7.5%	8%	0.5%
Fake IDs	4,680	11,343	14.2%	13.3%	0.9%
Not Registered  in the constituency	435	791	1.3%	0.9%	0.4%
Duplicate votes	1,404	5,839	4.2%	6.8%	2.6%
No Finger prints	386	314	1.17%	0.3%	0.8%
Failed authentication	53	1,950	0.16%	2.3%	2.1%
Bad quality fingerprints	23,432	57,642	71%	68%	3%
Total Votes for verification	32,865	84,748	100%	100%

Initially, NADRA was capable of matching only 100 fingerprints per day but that capacity has been upgraded to 100,000 fingerprints per day at the Cost of Rs.10 per vote. According to the chairman of NADRA, Muhammad Tariq Malik, “increase capacity has been achieved through Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) software development by NADRA’s own engineers”

This prompted me to research AFIS further.

Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) 

The FBI initiated the project for automating fingerprint identification process in the United States in early 1960. In 1975 the first AFIS software was developed. In 1999, FBI upgraded their system from AFIS to Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS) which is largest finger printing database in the world. In 2009, the FBI announced plans to replace IAFIS with a Next Generation Identification system.

According to the FBI, 98% of all AFIS transactions required a manual review and approximately 15% all NGIS transactions still require a manual review.

AFIS technology

AFIS is an open-source software SDK (software development kit). A few years back, AFIS technology was proposed to the Yemeni government for voter verification but the project did not hit the shelves because of high rate of inaccuracy and discrepancies. Without manual review the inaccuracy rate was 90%, only 10% of the records were truly matched. The NADRA report data shows discrepancies of 7.5% and 8.0% of Total Verified Votes in (NA-256 & NA-258) respectively, which is under the accuracy rate of automated AFIS technology without manual review.

Optical character recognition (OCR) Technology

OCR is the mechanical or electronic conversion of scanned images of handwritten, typewritten or printed text into machine-encoded text. This technology is used by NADRA to convert and extract handwritten NIC numbers from vote counterfoils and run them against the NADRA NIC database for verification. According to leading OCR software companies the error rate for handwritten document is between 15%-20% depending on the image quality and writing style. NADRA reported data that shows 14.2% and 13.3% of fake ID numbers in (NA-256 & NA-258) respectively, which is within the percentage of software error rate.

For AFIS or OCR, the recommended image quality is between 500 to 1000 dpi, or dots per inch, for a better and desirable result. But currently, NADRA is scanning vote counterfoils images at 400 dpi, which definitely increases the capacity rate and, incidentally, the error rate.

Most importantly, NADRA civilian AFIS uses flat fingerprint, in which the finger is pressed down on a flat surface but not rolled. All the vote counterfoils were verified against the flat fingerprints. Any roll fingerprints / poor quality fingerprints / low ink fingerprints on counterfoils were categorized as “bad quality” fingerprints or “failed authentication”. The NADRA report data shows 71.2% and 70.3% “bad quality” fingerprints or “failed authentication” in (NA-256 & NA-258) respectively.

These were historic elections for Pakistan. The eyes of the world as well as the hopes of the country were pinned on them. They deserved the full attention of officials who were responsible for their execution. The fact that inaccurate software was used is inexcusable. All software used to decide the fate of a country should be state-of –the-art and the best possible available and not technology that has been discarded as being inaccurate.

AFIS and OCR are technologies that are not meant for bulk vote verification. Surely there are people in the election commission who were aware of the limitations of the software before they decided to go ahead and deploy it anyway. More importantly, the people should have been apprised of the possibility of these discrepancies ahead of time to avoid confusion after the results were in. Election is a process which demands transparency for validity. In the current volatile political atmosphere of Pakistan, deciding to use inaccurate and obsolete software proves that the citizens of Pakistan are still not the factor in these important choices. 

Also published in Express Tribune http://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/19174/voting-inaccuracies-in-na-256-and-na-258-we-need-a-better-system/
Urdu Translation: http://newslinekarachi.blogspot.com/
Twitter ID @fawadrehman