ELECTORAL SYSTEM A LEARNING EXPERIENCE FOR CHRISTOPHER

Christopher Akwitau, an Assistant Returning Officer (ARO) for Central Kwara’ae says his recent involvement in the national general election process has been a great learning experience.

Mr Akwitau has worked alongside his colleague Pearson Simi who was the Returning Officer (RO) for Central Kwara’ae Constituency during last week’s National General Elections.

In an exclusive interview with SIBC News, Mr Akwitau says involving in the whole election process has helped him learn a lot.

Being a Registration Clerk during the Biometric Voter Registration system through to the announcement of election results has been a great learning experience, he told SIBC News.

Mr Akwitau says he has learned a lot throughout the election process, despite it being a lengthy process.

“I worked as a clerk during the Biometric Voters’ Registration in the same Constituency I am now working for and from registration until the completion of the election results, so I’ve learned a lot of things during the process, from registration of voters up to the election and declaration of wining candidates, so though it’s a lengthy process, I’ve learned a lot all the way through especially meeting up with different sorts of people.”

The Assistant Returning Officer says the new Biometric Voter Registration system has achieved its aim of establishing a clean voters’ list, unlike the old registration system.

He adds, the previous system did little to prevent double registration while the new has omitted such voting practices, which is
an advantage.

“Previously people can vote by different names, vote with names of deceased people, but the Biometric System gets rid of such practices when it was introduced, like for instance, in this constituency around 10,000-12,000 voters used to vote, but the Biometric System had reduced this to 6,000 plus, so we see that only people who lived in the villages or living in Honiara and have villages in the constituency have actually registered.”

SIBC News understands, former MP for Central Kwara’ae Jackson Fiulaua has retained his parliamentary seat for the constituency, by securing a majority of 1,558 votes.