By-Election for Paripao Ward and West Guadalcanal Constituency Set to Cost Around SBD3.5 Million Dollars
By Sharon Nanau
The upcoming By-Elections for Paripao Ward and West Guadalcanal Constituency are estimated to cost around SBD3.5 million dollars.
Solomon Islands Electoral Commission CEO Jasper Highwood Anisi told SIBC news in an interview.
“The election will cost roughly from SBD3 million dollars to SBD3.5 million dollars, elections nowadays are getting expensive to run,” he said.
The electoral commission has approved the 4th of June as election day.
Mr Anisi explained that a cabinet paper was submitted for approval of the election dates yesterday.
“The Governor General will make the official election announcement on the 8th of April announcing the West Guadalcanal by election date and the Minister of Provincial Government and Institutional Strengthening will issue a notice for the Paripao Ward election. According to the electoral act election day will be held 56 days after the election official announcement is made,” he said.
Mr Anisi revealed that no voter registration exercise will take place for the Guadalcanal by-elections.
He said the commission will use the voters’ list from the 2024 national election, incorporating the registration of 17-year-olds from last year who have now turned 18.
“So we have a system that last year when we called for registration we call for 17 year olds so what happen is that when these 17 years old turn 18 they will be automatically, there names will appear in the system so for the current ward, the Paripao ward we will have an additional 26 new voters who were 17 when the registration was being conducted, now they have turned 18 years old and for West Guadalcanal constituency it should be roughly around 51 new voters,” he said.
Both the provincial and national by-elections are expected to be held on the same day.
Mr Anisi added they are looking to have the ballot papers retrieved at the close of polling day.
“We are currently looking at plans to have all the ballot papers retrieved back to Honiara for counting, at this stage we are still planning a decision on where the counting will take place should be made in the coming weeks,” he said.
SIBC news understands preparation for the election is currently underway with the SIEC awareness teams now on the ground holding voter awareness talks and training for the senior electoral officers held this week in Honiara.
The by-election came about following the death of Brally Jim Tavalia former MPA for Paripao ward and Moses Garu former Member of Parliament for West Guadalcanal Constituency.
Ends//