REGISTRATION Officer for Malaita, Robert Kaua, has urged Assistant Registration Officers to conduct voter registration according to the law and be conscious of what is right, and to be ‘soldiers of righteousness’.
Mr Kaua made the comments during a two day training course at Auki for Assistant Registration Officers for central Malaita.
He said the training had gone very well.
“What I really appreciated was the passion that the Assistant Registration Officers demonstrated towards the challenging task assigned to them,” Mr Kaua said.
The national voter registration period began on 25 January and will go on for the next 60 days throughout the country, followed by a further revision period of one month to allow the public to check a draft list for false or double registrations.
The Registration Officers attending the training were happy to be part of the process of registering voters.
One officer, Whitlam Saeni, said he appreciated the training, and had learnt the skills necessary to carry out voter registration.
“This voter registration training was effectively delivered with role plays to practice the process of registration and deal with difficult situations,” Mr Saeni said.
“For example, during this voter registration process, we have learnt that registration forms need to be signed by a witness or in the presence of an assistant registration officer, we think this is a good way to help close the doors of corruption,” Mr Saeni said.
“The role plays helped us to understand the use of the different forms for registering new voters and removing old ones from the list, and the various procedures used to give the voters’ list integrity.”
Mr Saeni praised the Electoral Commission for providing registration officers with more awareness information for the public compared to the past voter registration process.
“Training materials have improved a lot since the last election. This time we are equipped with voter registration posters which illustrate the entire voter registration process – which have pictures, and Pidgin and English text,” Mr Saeni said.
Assistant Voter Registration Officers will now commence travel to villages around the province with the old 2006 voters list to remove those that have died or have moved, and add in new names for those who have turned 18 years over the four years.
Chief Electoral Officer, Polycarp Haununu, said the Electoral Commission plans to conduct an all day public information day in Auki town on 12 February.
“Following the successful information day in Honiara last Sunday we are planning to conduct a similar information day in Auki,” Mr Haununu said.
“We want to empower people with information to help the Electoral Commission deliver a voters’ list with integrity, where everyone is registered with one name, and in one place.”
“This will be an opportunity for the people in Auki and surrounding villages to learn about the registration process through our registration drama, information papers on voter registration and ask our staff and registration officials any questions in relation to voter registration, elections or the functions of the Electoral Commission”, said Mr Haununu.
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