3 Apr 2006

Solomons election boss warns against double voting in Wednesday's poll

2:20 pm on 3 April 2006

The Chief Electoral Officer in Solomon Islands, Musu Kevu, is warning voters that they should not attempt to vote twice in Wednesday's general elections.

Mr Kevu says the Electoral Commission has checked the list of voters and found a high number of double registrations.

There is also a very high number of registered voters, just over 340,000 people, on the current electoral roll out of a population estimated to be around 500,000.

With more than 50 percent of Solomon Islanders under 18, which is the legal age to vote, there are questions about the 90,000 plus although Mr Kevu says there could have been a big increase in the population as the last census was ten years ago.

And, he says they will not, at this point, eliminate the double registrations.

"We know who they are. We cannot decide which one to knock off the role in case we knock off the wrong person at the wrong place and that will be a problem for us. So, we'll be relying very much on the ink that we use to mark voters' fingers during election."

Mr Kevu says the indelible ink has been tested and should prevent somebody from going from one constituency to another to vote again.