Samoa’s Electoral Commissioner Faimalomatumua Mathew Lemisio is urging all eligible voters to register themselves even though the next elections are four years away.
Since the completion of this year’s elections on March 4, Faimalomatumua and the OEC have been announcing the names of all eligible members of the public who were not registered in the previous elections and those who have now reached 21 years, the legal age mandatory to register to vote.
However, Faimalomatumua says there’s still a problem with the numbers after five months of advertising.
“We have put out a total of 1,100 names of people whom we have cross referenced with the birth certificate authorities or BDM. We’ve registered a little over a thousand names,” he said.
“About 17,000 is the target number of those we see haven’t registered and that’s those who were born from 1990 to 1995. We are always open to have members of the public come in and register. Our last elections, a lot of people had complaints about the long lines, when the opportunity has been open years and months before the initial deadline. So we’re urging the public to take this time to come register it won’t take more than five minutes,” said Faimalomatumua.
From the previous election, many people have been charged by the OEC for failing to register within the time given. Registration under the OEC is enforced by the law to account for all eligible voters, but the choice whether to vote is up to the person themselves.
This “large group” as Faimalomatumua describes them will appear in court next week.
“Some have pleaded guilty to failing to register and some have pleaded otherwise. Those who have pleaded guilty will have their sentencing hearing on September 12. The OEC has no hope to keep sending our people to court, but the hope is to push our people to register. So by advertising this through various medium we’re trying to avoid that. But the law is the law,” he added.
Photo: Radio New Zealand