Supervisor of Elections Mohammed Saneem says the Fijian Elections Office joins the Electoral Commission in welcoming the announcement by the Attorney General in relation to the amendments to provisions governing the registration of voters in Fiji.
In a statement, Saneem says the voter list is the final product in the voter registration process and the voter list in an election is regarded as the most important administrative component as it contains the final list of voters that are permitted to vote at that particular polling station.
Saneem says one of the basic tenets of ‘free and fair’ elections is a clean, complete and current voter list adding that the voter list must be maintained in a transparent manner and the election management body, in this case the Elections Office, is held accountable for ensuring that the voter list is regularly updated, consistently verified to ensure its accuracy and correctness, is accessible and where possible published so that it can be scrutinized.
He further says the key requirements for registration are attaining the age of 18 and being a citizen of Fiji.
Saneem adds the registration officials identify and verify the requirements for registration directly from the Birth Certificate of ‘a person’ which is issued by the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registry in Fiji and the Birth Certificate is considered prima-facie evidence that the person is a citizen of Fiji, as per section 5(3) of the Constitution and the date of birth recorded in this document is proof of age.
He says the Elections Office works with relevant stakeholders such as the Health Ministry, Births, Deaths and Marriages Registry in Fiji and the Fiji Corrections Service to update its voter list.
Saneem highlighted that the task of matching names of all the voters with the records held at these agencies will become very difficult if individuals are allowed to use names not present in birth records (or as amended subsequently).
He says it will result in people having their names on the National Register of Voters when they are actually disqualified from voting and it is not for the administrative convenience of the Supervisor of Elections but a direct necessity for protecting the rights of every voter.
Saneem also says that stakeholders in the election take extreme interest in the voter list and political parties obtain provisional voter lists from the Elections Office regularly and carry out direct voter verification.
He adds that as at 31st December 2020, the Elections Office has 650,081 registered voters in the National Register of Voters and they estimate that approximately 665,000 to 670,000 individuals will be eligible to register until the 2022 General Election.
Saneem highlighted that in 2020, they identified 76 individuals that attempted to register using alternate names.
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