The Honiara stakeholders were in support of the proposed combine elections.

This was the general conclusion after a whole day of deliberation on the electoral reforms that the Electoral Taskforce has been going around with throughout the country.

Many of the participating stakeholders were happy to be part of this consultation and be given the opportunity to share their views, contributing to this very important reform.

Chairman of the Solomon Islands Electoral Commission Mr. Patteson Oti welcomed and acknowledged the presence of all the participants for their valuable time to come and be part of this consultation.

One of the requirements of the election law is candidates who had contested parliamentary elections must report details on their election campaign-related expenses as provided for under section 69 of the Electoral Act 2018.

Acting Chief Electoral Officer Mr. Fredrick Bosoboe said that withing 90 days from the date of the official publication of the election results in the gazette for any particular national parliamentary election, all candidates both winning and losing must submit their election campaign expenses to the Chief Electoral Officer. 

Mr. Bosoboe said that the official publication of the West Kwaio Constituency by-election result is on Wednesday 28th September 2022.

“90th day counting from Wednesday 28th September 2022 is Monday 26th December 2022.  All candidates contesting this by-election must within this 90-day period, submit all accounts of election campaign expenses incurred during and for their campaign trail”, Mr. Bosoboe said.

“As of today, contestants in the recent West Kwaio national by-election day have only 76 remaining days”, Mr. Bosoboe reminds the candidates.

“Along with these election campaign expense accounts, the law also requires, candidates to disclose, all sources of funds or donations received towards their election campaign activities”, He adds,

Mr. Bosoboe said that candidates must disclose sources of funds from which they received funding support and as well as give a detailed report on how these funds were spent.

These election campaign expense accounts must be submitted on a special prescribed approved form that can be collected from the Electoral Commission office either in hard or soft copy or can also be downloaded online from Electoral Commission Official Website, www.siec.gov.sb .

There are two forms that will be used to submit these expenses.  The first one is for the submission of all the expenses and the second one is the declaration form to certify the integrity of your report.  This declaration must be signed by the candidate and attached to the expense report.

Mr. Bosoboe highlighted that failure to comply with these requirements by law results in heavy penalties. 

“If a candidate fails to submit his or her election campaign expense accounts within the 90 days given period, he or she is in breach of the electoral law and would face a penalty of 20,000 fine and or 2 years imprisonment” He expressed.

On top of that, for each day that a candidate fails to submit the report after the lapsed of the 90 days period, he or she will be charged an extra $100 fine for every day he or she fails to submit after the lapsed of 90 days given period”

To avoid paying accumulation of this $100 unit each day for failing to submit, candidates are encouraged to must submit within this 90-day given period.

If you want to know more on how to go about submitting these candidates’ election campaign expenses, do call Lindsey Indu on Phone 7648766 or send an email to lindu@siec.gov.sb to get a copy of the forms.

For Election Happenings, follow SIEO Facebook @SIelectoralcommission page and website at www.siec.gov.sb Or for general enquiry, you can call the office hotline phone at 7222200 or landline 21198.

 

END:// SIEO PRESS

West Kwaio by-election national parliamentary Election Result has been published in the Gazette

Acting Chief Electoral Officer, Mr. Fredrick Bosoboe highlighted that publishing the election results for the parliamentary general and by-election in the gazette is an integral part of the electoral process following the counting of votes.

“Publication of the Official Election Results is important as it made reference to the fulfillment of other electoral legal processes”, Mr. Bosoboe said.

He explained that the additional issuance of this official gazette notice by the Commission, following the Returning Officer’s notification initiates its parliamentary processes to inform the winning candidate as a member of parliament-elected formally.

“Not only that but In the Electoral Act, this gazette notice also initiates the beginning of the 90 days period for submission of candidates’ election campaign expenses”, Mr. Bosoboe adds.

Also highlighting that publishing of the election results in the gazette also begins the period of 30 days for lodging an election petition through the High Court.

The Official Result Gazette notice detailed names of candidates in order of the total number of votes gained per candidate.

The Member of Parliament-Elect for the West Kwaio By-Election Parliamentary Seat is Mr. Claudius TEI’IFI with 1793 votes, a total of 689 votes more than its second runner up Mr. MANI John Aron with 1,104 votes.

This accomplishes the election process and Solomon Islands Electoral Commission would like to thank the good people of West Kwaio Constituency, especially candidates and supporters, for a successful by-election and for participating in our democratic voting process.

If you want to know more on any election-related matter or check-up for new updates on Election happenings, follow SIEO Facebook @SIelectoralcommission page and website at www.siec.gov.sb Or for general enquiry, you can call the office hotline phone at 7222200 or landline 21198.

The provisional voter list is still on display in all the polling stations in Western and Choiseul provinces.

Omission and Objection period is also open until 1st of October, 2022.

Registrants from Choiseul and Western Provinces who have just registered or updated their voter registration details in the August voter registration update are encouraged to must check the provisional voter list to make sure that their registration details are correct.

Make sure your name appears or is not wrongly placed in another village.

Malaita is in support of the holding of Simultaneous Election’, this was the common sentiment shared by the Malaita Provincial Assembly members and the stakeholder representatives during the two days consultation workshop on the proposed electoral reforms that was held in Auki on the 19th and 20th September, 2022.

Amongst the many proposed amendments to the election laws for provincial assembly and the parliament, the Malaita provincial assembly members were quite vocal about aligning the provincial assembly term with the current parliamentary term.

“With parliamentary term being now extended to 31 December 2023, we the assembly members strongly recommended that the provincial assemblies’ term be extended as well, in order for us to have simultaneous election”, One of the MPA, Hon Francis shared his view during the consultation meeting.

Vote Secrecy is one of the main principles of Elections. Electoral laws and developed electoral procedures must ensures that vote secrecy is protected.

Acting Chief Electoral Officer, Mr. Fredrick Bosoboe said that laws and procedures are in place to ensure that each vote is totally secret and to gain voters’ confidence in the processes so that, they can exercise right to vote, freely.

Mr. Bosoboe explained that counting systems used for the two elections are different.