No plans yet to introduce out-of-constituency voting

 

 

The Chief Electoral Officer of the Solomon Islands Electoral Commission says, there is no concrete planning at this stage to introduce out-of-constituency voting in the country.

Moses Saitala made the clarification over recent concerns raised by a Martin Karani from Makira-Ulawa Province .

The Provincial Assembly Member for ward 14, described the idea of out-of-constituency voting as still premature.

But Chief Electoral Commissioner Saitala explained, there is no definite arrangement to guarantee the introduction of this system soon.

“There’s nothing concrete at this stage whether that actually is going to take place. The reason for that is that we haven’t even completed the planning and the okay for that to happen will have to come from the Electoral Commission itself.

“At this stage the planning process has not been completed, but it is something that a lot of people have also expressed their desire for that out of constituency elections to take place.”

Mr Saitala said they will only do registration in Honiara for voters who wish to cast their votes back home.

“The best that I can say is that if we have done the registrations in 2014 for residents in Honiara wanting to register for their home, i can say with confidence that we can do that again in terms of the update of the 2014 list of voters here in Honiara.

“But I can also confirm that the issue of voting here in Honiara by those people that have registered here and desire to cast their votes here, that issue is not yet been finalized.”

 

By: Rickson Bau