Posted on Wed, 08/28/2019 – 11:28
Deidre Tautua – Fanene
The urgency to build a new Electoral Commissioners Office is growing with every passing day as the countdown to the next general elections, is down to just under a year and a half.
Electoral Commissioner, Faimalomatumua Matthew Lemisio confirmed that the project has been looked at for a while now.
A $3m tala budget for the new building is in place already waiting for the planning and the talking to be done and ready to go.
“This project has been in the pipeline for some time now and we should be finalizing everything before an official media release is made,” a non committal Faimalomatumua said.
Still to be finalised is a location for the new building that is more central for easy access by the general public.
The Electoral Commissioner’s Office is currently split between the Development Bank Building and the SNPF Plaza.
Faimalomatumua wants more space with the new office to cope with the work commitment, especially with the upcoming general elections next year.
“The current “split locations” will not cope with the work, especially as we’re getting closer to the vital part of the electoral cycle,” he said.
The Electoral Commissioner’s Office has worked itself slowly through several temporary locations.
It was forced to relocate from the old Lands and Titles Court Administration Building at Mulinu’u to the Tofilau Building only a few meters away to run the last general election in 2016.
It has since moved to current temporary locations in Apia, to wait out the construction of its own office.