By Martha Taumata Faavae
The Office of the Electoral Commissioner, OEC, is keeping to schedule in its planned build up to the General Elections, by not allowing any time extension for voter registrations.
The actual deadline was 4.00pm last Friday and it turned into a mad last minute rush by unregistered voters.
Staff of the Office of the Electoral Commissioner, staggered late into the evening to clear up the mass left behind long past closing time at the EFKS Youth Hall at Sogi.
OEC and Justice Minister Fa’aolesa Katopau Ainuu, firmly confirmed there will be no extra time allowed for voter registrations.
“All the plans for the General Elections are in place and on schedule, any re-arrangements of the timing will delay everything including the election polls next year,” Fa’aolesa remained firm.
“It ‘s disappointing because we carry out voter registrations every year but it seems to be our nature to always leave it to the last minute.”
The Minister is puzzled by the idle disregard by the unregistered and is determined to take a firm stand by keeping to a strict deadline.
“Once it ends that’s it, if it means unregistered voters will be fined we’ll go with that.
“ The electoral staff have done their work and were ignored when the call went out for families to hang out pieces of cloth at their homes to make it easier for them to come in and officially record any unregistered voters.
“ We have now reached the deadline and that is it , there will be no extension of registration.”
The OEC staff kept late hours for the whole week to cope with the long lines of voters at the SNPF Plaza.
Registration on the final day last Friday was relocated to the EFKS Youth Hall, that narrowly avoided a huge clog up in the centre of Apia.(see inside story.)
The Electoral Commissioner, Faimalomatumua Mathew Lemisio, was right there keeping long, tiring hours with his staff.
He too was disappointed with the nature of people to always keep it to the last minute but he was very encouraged to see the massive turnout of unregistered voters.
These are the people they have been chasing after in between the 5-year election cycle who are now making a desperate dash to be registered.
“ For the 2016 Election year we were able to register a lot of voters because we worked all night right up to the next day,’ Faimalomatumua recalled.
“Inside the 5 year period up till now we have registered many more people than what we have initially targetted.”
The Electoral Commissioner willingly allowed his staff to work beyond the 4.00pm Friday deadline giving regard to the large crowd still left to be process.
Gates to the compound were closed and all who were inside at the time were registered, a work that continued late into the night.
About 80 per cent of the massive turnout were found to be unregistered voters and the rest wanted to change voting constituencies.
Faimalomatumua, took exception to overheard crowd complaints of standing for long hours in line.
‘There is nothing we can do to change people who are used to leaving things to the last minute.
“ The register for voters has remained opened since 2016 after the General Elections, the staff called into families in the villages and we also have officers working from the police outposts to register voters.”
Crowd control by the police and security companies working with the OEC staff were commended for their patience and hard work.
The Electoral Commissioner reminded that it is the responsibility of every individual at reaching the voting age of 21 years old to register as a voter or suffer the $2000 fine.
