Electoral Commission launches Voter Registration Exercise

The Solomon Islands Electoral Commission has launched the 2018 Voter Registration Exercise today.

The launching marked the commencement of awareness activities and preparations for the nation-wide Voter Registration Update Exercise early next month.

Commission Chair Ajilon Nasiu emphasized that the voter registration is the foundation of the integrity of elections.

“This reform among other aims looks to at new legislation to update the National Parliaments’ Electoral Provision Act ,making it more stream lined and effective.

“The reform also looks at reviewing the system we are using to vote for our members of parliament and to see whether other election system might better meet our needs.’’

Mr Nasiu clarified that the upcoming registration is to update the voters list and not a new registration.

He said people who have registered and voted in 2014, will already have their names on the list.

“Your name is already on the list and will be retained on the list for the National General Elections next year. You do not need to register again’, he said.

Mr Nasiu said the registration update aims to capture those who have turned 18 after the 2014 voter registration, and those who were eligible but did not register in 2014.

”It is estimated across the whole country some 35,000 young people are now eligible to register. So the register also needs to be updated to reflect where people are now living; and we also need to to help clean up the list by removing names of persons who have passed away since it was first complied.

“‘It is therefore important to that all of us help to the Commission update and clean up the voters list for next year’s election.”

The Voter Registration Update Exercise starts on September 3rd with the enrollment of eligible voters”and ends September 27th.

SIEC will then compile the provisional voters list and exhibit the list starting November 29th to October 4th for people to check and make corrections.

By: Kikiva Tuni