(GP)

Statement from the Electoral and Boundaries Commission – Electoral Department in relation to comments published by social media commentator Mr. Niel Harper.

Recently, there has been much misinformation and allegations around the security of the Trident ID card, security of the registration information captured and stored by the Electoral and Boundaries Commission and data breaches regarding the electronic publication of the Register of Electors.

As a social media commentator, Mr. Niel Harper has gone on record as reporting that on a recent call with a colleague, he was informed that Nigerians and other fraudsters have been employing, what he terms as the “leaked Barbados electoral list” to perpetrate identity theft and fraud across the world.  

He went on to say that credit cards owned by Bajans are now being blocked from many transactions by banking institutions in Europe, North America and other regions due to the increase in fraud using Bajan identities. Ultimately, he referred to the release of the electoral list as a major data breach.

Firstly, with reference to what Mr. Harper terms a major data breach, Section 13 of the Representation of the Peoples Act 2007 imposes an obligation on the Electoral & Boundaries Commission (the EBC) to yearly publish a register of electors for each constituency and a register of foreign service electors entitled to vote at any election. The legislation states: “that the register of electors…shall contain the name, address, electoral number or national registration number of the persons who are…qualified under this Act as electors.”

Further, where the Governor General (President) issues a writ for an election in a constituency (as would have been the case in late 2021 for the upcoming general elections in January 2022), section 18 of the said Act imposes an obligation on the EBC to publish a register of electors in respect of that constituency no later than 21 days after the writ of election was issued.

This register of electors shall be known as the Register for Elections. The register for elections must contain the name, address, occupation, if any, and electoral number of any person qualified under this Act to be registered as an elector or a foreign service elector, for the constituency.

Therefore, in late 2021, when a general election was called, the EBC had a legal obligation to publish the Register for Elections and, as stated previously and in accordance with the Act, the register must contain personal data such as the name, address, occupation and electoral number of any person registered.

This publication, whether in physical/hard or electronic copy does not constitute a data breach under the Data Protection Act 2019 (DPA) because it is a publication that is being done pursuant to a legal obligation. Section 37 of the DPA exempts such personal data from the parameters of the DPA, since although it is personal data, it is personal data that is legally available to the public.

Therefore, under the DPA, the publication of the Register of Electors does not constitute a data breach. It should also be noted that the Barbados Representation of the People Act Chapter 12 does not vary substantially from the legislation in the region in terms of the requirements to publish certain personal data. In fact, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and Antigua and Barbuda all have their Register of Electors posted online.

Secondly, the Electoral and Boundaries Commission has no reports, no knowledge and certainly no evidence of any theft of the identities of Barbadians. Furthermore, the Commission has no reports, knowledge and/or evidence of the theft of the identities of Barbadians due in any part to the previous publishing the Register of Electors.

Thirdly, relative to our efforts to safeguard the identities of our citizens, it must be underscored that it was not very difficult to reproduce the old paper and laminated ID card; therefore, there were multiple incidents of persons substituting the photograph, along with other means, to fraudulently present the old ID card.

As a result, and in the interest of keeping our citizens’ identities as safe as possible, the ID card has been changed. A significantly more secure ID card, which has a chip is being issued, and registrants have an option to also employ a PIN on this new Trident ID card, in keeping with some of the latest technological security features for cards.  

This new card, the Trident ID card displays ONLY what was previously displayed on the old ID card but additionally, the chip carries the address, issue date, place of birth, residential status, the voting status and for minors, the parent/guardianship information.

This additional information cannot be accessed without the entering of the registrant’s PIN; therefore, the registrant is completely in control of who has access to this additional information. Among other benefits, giving access to the address on the chip will allow the registrant to conveniently provide a government validated proof of address without having to produce utility bills in his/her name. This is a significant benefit to persons who do not have utility bills in their name. 

Finally, we reiterate that the security of the data and information of every Barbadian resident is of the utmost importance to the Electoral and Boundaries Commission and the Government of Barbados. Mr. Harper has published alleged reports of credit cards being blocked from transactions by banking institutions due to increase in fraud using Bajan identities. However, our investigations show that there are no such reports before the Anti-fraud Committee of the Bankers Association of Barbados and no such reports before the Central Bank of Barbados.

Electoral and Boundaries Commission

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