The Solomon Islands will have a brand new Voters List for the 2014 Elections thanks to an electoral provisions amendment bill passed in the March sitting of Parliament.
Additional funding is still being sought to produce the new list, as it will employ a new biometric system utilizing photography and fingerprinting to improve the accuracy and integrity of the list.
Stakeholders have requested that, in addition to the biometric voter registration, the Electoral Commission should procure biometric voter verification equipment for the Election Day. Their expectations are that this will:
- prevent multiple voting
- prevent voter impersonation
- prevent ballot stuffing
The Electoral Commission says that their goal is quite clear – “a complete and accurate voters list is the starting point of a credible election. For this to happen we must prevent voters from voting more than once and unregistered voters from voting.”
“So the use of biometrics for automatic verification and authentication at the point-of-counting represents the best solution in ensuring elections with the highest integrity,” the Commission said in a statement.
With Radio Australia