190 NGE incident reports

Police has received a total of 190 incident reports related to the recent National General Elections.

Police Commissioner Matthew Varley says of these, 63 were disturbance-related while 48 were threat allegations.

Mr Varley said there were 22 reported allegations on breaches of the Electoral Act, 14 reports on damage to properties, and another 14 on roadblocks.

“There were also complaints on the procedure of voting, there were some people who said their names were not on the voting list,” he said.

” All of those issue are matters for the SIEC to assess and address, and I understand various complaint have already been given to SIEC, and they are looking into it, but they are not matters for the police to investigate , unless we get a referral from the electoral commissioner around a criminal offense.

Despite these reports, Commissioner Varley said the reaction and feedback from the public indicated a peaceful election period.

He acknowledged his hard working officers, and the manner in which people had turned out to vote and their reaction after the results had been declared

“I think that was reflected on a high number of voter turnout, if you look at the ratios that was published by the electoral commission , you see in some location there was a voter turnout of 90%, people felt safer and went to vote without any intimidation,” he said.

“As we said before the NGE the world was watching and what we’ve shown our neighbors and people around the world is that Solomon Islands is ready for change , is ready for peace and progress for the future and we do that through responsible voting and democracy.”

By: Lowen Sei.