The electoral commission in Vanuatu is trying its best to clear up some confusion with the voting process for tomorrow’s snap election.

Principal Electoral Officer Guilain Malessas said this is due to the tight turnaround to deliver this election after Parliament was dissolved last year.

The Vanuatu Electoral Office has confirmed that 52 seats, across 18 constituencies, will be contested by 217 candidates, seven of whom are women.

But Malessas said against all odds, preparations were almost complete.

The final ballot boxes are being deployed to the farthest polling stations in the country and final checks are being carried out.

He said the premature dissolution of parliament last year forced them to have to deliver an election a year early, and within a two-month timeframe, as required in the constitution.

“The final challenge that remains is for us to make sure all the ballot boxes that we have deployed have reached all the polling stations safely,” he said.

“Also, there is the challenge of a new ballot structure which we have not had enough awareness on.”

He said they had not had enough time to conduct community awareness about the new system, and there was also new electoral legislation, which was passed in preparation for 2026 — the original date for the next election.

“With the new ballot structure you just have a single page with all the candidates and their symbols on it and you just have to tick the one you want,” Malessas said.

“We have not had enough awareness.

“We have used all existing social media platforms but lots of people in rural areas do not have access to these things.”

Extra training
Malessas said they had had extra training for polling station officials to help voters on Thursday, and had printed lots of informational material to be posted up at polling stations.

He said election candidates had also been conducting awareness during their political campaigns.

With the December 17 earthquake forcing the relocation of many polling stations, they were also anticipating people turning up with national ID cards at the wrong polling stations.

To manage this, they plan to verify that the person is a resident of the constituency and that their ID card was issued before the close of voter registrations for this election on 3 December 2024.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

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The Solomon Islands Electoral Commission (SIEC) said pre-polling has been facilitated for police officers and electoral officials who will be working during polling day on April 17.

The pre-polling for working officials was held from 7am to 4pm local time.

For the election proper, 19 pre-polling locations have been organised across the 10 provinces.

The elections office is encouraging voters to check their details on the electoral commission’s polling station locator.

Meanwhile, the SIEC has clarified guidelines regarding elections campaigning after what it said were “misconceptions in the media”.

It said that according to the Electoral Act 2018, campaigning in all forms were permitted up until 24 hours before polling day, including but not limited to rallies, speeches and public parades.

“A recent news article in the Island Sun newspaper erroneously suggested that SIEC had advised against float parades in Honiara City,” it said in a statement.

“The SIEC clarifies that decisions regarding public floats and parades fall under the rightful jurisdiction of the Honiara City Council and the Royal Solomon Islands Police, not the SIEC.

“It is crucial for all stakeholders, including candidates, political parties, and the media, to adhere to the Electoral Act 2018 and conduct campaigns within the legal framework.”

The commission is urging local media to verify information before publishing so that it is accurate and maintains the integrity of the electoral process.

This report is drawn from RNZ News reports and photographs under a community partnership and other sources.

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The headline of this editorial, we believe, expresses what every eligible voter, business house and candidate in the nation’s capital feels towards the Electoral Commission of PNG.

To make a decision like this, the deferral of polling, at the very last minute on the day when this important event is to take place is absurd. it’s costly and creates an impression that our electoral process is dysfunctional in the eyes our citizens and the international community.

The explanation by the Election Manager for NCD (National Capital District), Kila Ralai, citing interference from candidates and their scrutineers on the deferral is very weak and doesn’t hold water.

He was quoted as saying: “Unfortunately in that process there was interference, by the candidates and the scrutineers who came to over-rule the administration of the electoral process, that has prolonged the election operations.”

However, he goes on further and says: “We need to maintain our integrity, we need to maintain that integrity and the efficient process of the elections, so that we can deliver the elections to our voters.

“It is not good that we will push when the systems are not in place when the process is not prepared, we need to have all these before we conduct elections for NCD.”

Our question is: So what systems are not in place and whose job is it to prepare so that the integrity of the election is maintained?

The excuse made for the initial deferral from July 4-6 and now from 6th to maybe 8th of July is completely unacceptable.

And we endorse the sentiments of NCD Governor Powes Parkop and many other candidates who said: “Securing counting venues and preparing polling officials, ballot boxes and ballot papers are basic outcomes that the Chief Electoral Commissioner and his staff should have sorted out well before the 4th or 6th of July.

“These are basic issues they ought to have templates and be experts in these areas by now.

This basic failure shows the highest level of incompetency and someone should be brought to account for this level of incompetency which is bordering on stupidity.”

This basic failure shows poor level of leadership, poor planning and total incompetency on the part of Chief Electoral Commissioner and his officers.

They ought to hang their heads in shame!

For our capital city to be continuously subjected to such basic problems is totally unacceptable! It reflects badly on the Electoral Commission, our capital city and our country.

The Electoral Commission had four years and then a number of weeks due to deferral of the Issue of Writs and then two more days and they are still unprepared.

PNG Post-Courier. Republished with permission.

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Papua New Guinea went to the polls yesterday to begin electing the 11th national Parliament only to find out that there were names missing on the common roll while some polling stations were short of ballot papers around the country.

The distribution of ballot papers and the common roll update has been an issue over the past few months with the Electoral Commission continuing to provide assurance. But this was not the case yesterday.

In Lae, former four-term Lae MP Bart Philemon was turned away at his Butibam village polling booth because his name was not on the common roll.

Stefan Armbruster reports from Tari on the opening day of the PNG election.
Video: SBS News

“If this can happen in an urban village in Lae city, how can we be sure if people living in the vast remote areas around the country are casting their votes?,” he asked.

“Are they or will they exercise their fundamental democratic right which comes only after 5-years?”

Reports from other centres around the country included East New Britain, Central, Northern, Hela and Morobe provinces also facing the same issues yesterday.

Several locations in Central Province, voters had to argue with polling officials because their names were not on the common roll and these were the voters who had voted in the 2017 general election.

Central provincial police commander Superintendent John Midi confirmed that several commotions between voters and election officers had been reported at various locations in Hiri Koiari electorate.

Voting is underway in #PNG. @StefArmbruster is on the ground – covering his 3rd lot of elections. Bringing context & insight https://t.co/AKuXNW0OPK @GAIGriffith @SBSNews

— Dr Tess Newton Cain (@CainTess) July 4, 2022

‘Explain for peace’
“It is to due to ballot papers and voters which only the PNG Electoral Commission officials assigned to these areas have the powers to explain for peace among people during polling,” Superintendent Midi said.

Meanwhile, Philemon said the Electoral Commission had five years to update the common roll and to ensure that all eligible citizens were listed but it had failed the people of this country.

“I fail to understand the Electoral Commission failing its primary responsibility to update the roll,” he said.

The former MP said the Electoral Commission cannot in uncertain terms deny the fundamental democratic rights of its citizens to elect their leaders which falls every five years.

Philemon said the incompetency of public servants in the government workforce was a contributing factor not only to elections but other issues affecting health, education, transport infrastructure, law and order as well.

Frank Rai is a PNG Post-Courier reporter. Republished with permission.

Voters will elect 118 members of parliament, including governors of the 22 provinces, from the 3,600-plus candidates nominated. https://t.co/9KrQ6tqIlF

— RNZ Pacific (@RNZPacific) July 4, 2022

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