voter registration

The dates for the voter registrations commenced today and will continue until 6 May at the Office of the Electoral Commission at Mulinuu.

Special Registration Programmes within the Gagaifomauga 2 constituency will take place on Thursday and Friday for the villages of Faletagaloa, Fatuvalu; Leagiagi; Lefagaoalii; Matavai; Paia; Samauga and Safune.

RNZ Pacific's correspondent says there were accounts of people fainting, babies being lost in the crowd and traffic jams, as the Office of the Electoral Commission tried to cope with an unexpected last minute rush ahead of the 4pm deadline.

Qeues were made worse by some people, who had already registered, but wanted to make changes to their details, such as the constituency they were registered to vote in.

This comes after the Speaker of the House, Leaupepe Toleafoa Fa'afisi declared the seat vacant following the verbal resignation of Laaulialemalietoa Leuatea Schmidt.

Electoral Commissioner Faimalomatumua Mathew Lemisio told TV1 Samoa the registrations will go ahead despite Laaulialemalietoa telling media he had not given a written resignation.

He claims he had only told the Speaker he was setting up a new political party that his constituency had called for.

This by-election will be the first under new electoral constituencies.

The Chairman of the Commission and Speaker of the National Parliament, Ajilon Nasiu, said the aim was to enrol all eligible people over the age of 18 prior to next year's general election.

Mr Nasiu said the existing voter list is being updated and those already on it don't need to register.

He said the update starts next month.

It's estimated some 35,000 young people are now able to register as voters.

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.

The acting electoral commissioner, Faimalotumua Mathew Lemisio, has told the Samoa Observer that data from Births, Deaths and Marriages show about 300 had not registered, and there could be more found from other sources.

He said the law makes it compulsory for everyone who is eligible to vote to register.