Registered voters will have a chance to check their names on the Provisional Voters List starting from today.

The office of the Solomon Islands Electoral Commission (SIEC) has announced that the Provisional Voters Lists have been dispatched and are on their way to 951 Voter Registration Centres around the country

“It is important that every voter goes back to the place where they registered to make sure that all of their details appear correctly,” Chief Electoral Officer Mr Polycarp Haununu said.

Mr Haununu said that registered voters who registered through the Out of the Constituency Registration Centers will have to check their registrations in their respective home constituencies/wards.

“This is a very important process to ensure that the new voters list is as accurate as possible.”

The SIEC is says that only people who registered during the Biometric Voter Registration period will appear on the Provisional Voters List.

“If you did not register during the BVR period, you will not be able to register to vote in this year’s election,” Mr Haununu said.

“There will not be another chance to register.”

If registered voters believe there is a mistake with their registration, such as a spelling error or that they have been assigned to the wrong village, they should see their Assistant Registration Officer during the ‘Omissions and Objections period’ which runs from 24th July to 6th August.

“Omissions and Objections will be able to be lodged at four centres in each constituency,” Mr Haununu said.

“We will publicize these locations across the country closer to the start of the ‘Omissions and Objections Period’.

Almost 6000 double registrations have already been detected by the new Biometric Voter Registration system.

Those who have registered twice will appear on the provisional lists, but their names will be highlighted in yellow.

“If you have registered more than once, only your first registration will remain on the final list,” Mr Haununu said.

“For example, if you registered to vote in Honiara and in your home constituency, you will only be able to vote in the constituency that you registered in first.”

The SIEC says that while every effort has been made to ensure that lists are published across the country today, it may take some additional time to get the list to some more remote places.

“Getting the lists to 951 Voter Registration Centres across the country is a massive logistical task,” Mr Haununu said.

“We ask those in remote areas to be patient. It may be a good idea for people in extremely remote areas to plan to check the list later this week.”

For the latest information about voter registration, members of the public should tune in to the SIEC’s Radio Program on SIBC at 5.45pm on Wednesdays and at 6.15pm on Fridays.

Listeners can text in their questions to 772 0352 and SIEC staff will answer them during the program.

Press Release: SIEC