Skopje, 7 October 2021 (MIA) – North Macedonia is introducing biometric fingerprint identification of voters in the October 17 local elections for the first time ever and the devices are meant to improve the process through digitization, State Election Commission (SEC) President Aleksandar Dashetvski said Thursday. “The incumbent State Election Commission has the privilege and is responsible for introducing biometric identification devices for casting votes and by doing so, to become part of the improvement of the voting process as a whole,” he told reporters, adding the Commission has prepared a manual for voter’s identification. On Thursday, the State Election Commission organized a simulation of the voting process. The simulation process included all procedures as part of the casting of votes with COVID-19 protection protocols in place. According to him, biometric systems for registration and identification of voters have been widely used in the past ten years. “The goal is to make sure the principle of one voter – one vote is applied,” Dashtevski said. Biometrics, he explained, is the best technology to identify voters by scanning their fingerprints, which are compared with those provided for personal identification and the process allows voters’ identity to be checked. “According to election legislation, fair voting involves providing and meeting conditions for equality and freedom and secret vote,” Dashtevski stated. Also, he announced that 600 fingerprint scanners have arrived today and a batch of another 1,000 is expected tomorrow. A total of 4,000 devices have been provided for 3,480 polling stations. At the moment, the biometric identification devices are being filled at the State Election Commission with data from the polling stations.