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Registration Officers and their assistants in the field have been ordered to stop issuing new voter ID cards to transferring registrants, except the newly registered.
Chief Electoral Officer, Mose Saitala announced yesterday.
” I now ask all our staff to stop issuing the cards to transfer people, but to issue them only to the new registrants, meaning those voters have not registered before. It is the first time for them to register.”
Mr. Saitala said, the Solomon Islands Electoral Commission has strong evidence that a number of people register, some in more than one constituency and hand over their ID cards to intending candidates as guarantee to vote for them in exchange for cash or kind.
He said, this practice is illegal and people who risk themselves in ‘card selling’ will be prosecuted.
“We are going to prosecute, we are going straight to prosecution now. This doesn’t have to wait until the nominations. The intention is there, it can be established.
“The transactions of the id card has been absolutely witnessed. So the transaction for committing this offence is complete.
We don’t have to wait. We can do it right now.”
By: Leni Dalavera
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