SCIENTIFIC EVALUATION OF THE PROCESS OF SCANNING AND FORENSIC ANALYSIS OF THUMB PRINTS ON BALLOT PAPERS.

The research reported in this paper was motivated by the petitions submitted to the Election Petition Tribunals in Nigeria alleging multiple thumbprints of ballot papers in the elections held in 2007. Some of the Election Petition Tribunals exercised their discretion by granting the Petitioners the leave sought to inspect, scan and carry out forensics analysis of multiple thumbprints on ballot papers. The objective of the paper is to provide a legal framework for the truth, validity and admissibility in the court of law the process of scanning and forensic analysis of thumb prints on ballot papers in a developing country such as Nigeria. The method proposed to accomplish this objective has a number of phases. First, the features of thumbprint, certified procedure for thumb printing and certified quality check list for thumb printing are reviewed. Second, the practical issues of the certification and acceptability of the procedure for scanning and forensic analysis of thumb prints on ballot papers are proposed. Thirdly, the premises and conclusions of the logic of the admissibility, scientifically and in the court of law, of the results obtained from scanning and forensic analysis of thumb prints on ballot papers are also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]