The fate of who will rule the land in the next five years will be at the mercy of 115,892 registered voters all eligible to go to the polls come the 2016 General Elections in March.
The voters’ election roll represents 60% of our 190,000 population, the highest ever since our independence over half a century ago.
The official voters registration roll released recently by the Office of the Electoral Commissioner also shows that close to 7,000 new voters representing first time registrations and 21 year olds who are qualified to cast their ballots in March.
According to the rolls, the new Urban Constituencies account for a little over 7,000 of the voters accounting for 16% of the total rolls.
For the Urban East electoral constituency representing the Vaimauga East and West 2,481 voters are on their roll while the Urban West electoral constituency from the Faleata East and West has 4,561 voters in their roll.
Faleata West, despite thundering opposition by its incumbent Opposition Member of Parliament Lealailepule Rimoni Aiafi when the law amendments to create the Urban seats was debated in parliament has the highest number of voters logged at 5,092.
Lealailepule felt that the eligibility voters law to register as Urban West voters was a great injustice to his electoral constituency of Faleata West.
But at the close of voters registration, the Faleata West roll increased by 50 new voters from 5,057 in 2011.
Ironically, the second highest number of voters to cross the 4,000 voter’s neighborhood is the Urban West which is from Lealailepule’s hunting grounds.
In the meantime, some 2,000 public servants will be involved in manning the 350 voting booths in both Savai’I and Upolu come Election Day.
“It’s all systems go and we are satisfied with the voters respond,” says Assistant Chief Executive Francis Ainu’u.
“There are still some teething tidy ups but our office is confident that we have everything under control.
“We would also like to remind the public that any attempt to violate the electoral laws and its recent parliament approved amendments will not be tolerated as reflected by the recent criminal charges filed in court.”