6,780 Polling Officials for 2024 Joint Elections

By Eliza Kukutu

A total of 6,780 Polling Officials have been recruited for the April 17^th Joint Elections.

This includes 5,530 Polling Officers, 500 Constituency Counting Officials, 695 Provincial Ward Counting teams, and 55 Ward Counting teams for the Honiara City Council elections.

Deputy Chief Electoral Officer, Christina Mitini confirmed this in a talkback show yesterday.

She explains that this is an increase from the previous estimated number of 6,240 officials due to the increase in number of polling stations.

“There has been an increase in the number of polling stations to 1,106 so the number of polling officials has to be increased to cater for the additional number of polling stations in this year’s elections,” she said.

Mitini also confirms that the polling officials are now going through trainings ahead of the polling day on Wednesday.

In 2019, the Solomon Islands Electoral Commission recruited and trained a total of 3,500 polling officials to conduct the election activities.

This year’s recruitment is a huge increase in recruitment as the country will be having the joint election which will see polling for National, Provincial Assembly and Honiara City.

Despite the extra efforts in ensuring the smooth conduct of the elections, Chief Electoral Officer and Commissioner, Jasper Highwood Anisi assures that they are full prepared to carry out the elections.

“We are ready to roll out the elections. All election materials have reached the provincial centers and have been deployed to the various polling stations. We are confident that on 17^th April 7am we will commence polling,” he said.

ENDS//