Assistant Registration Officer Data Training Completed – 26 July 2022
July 26, 2022National Parliamentary By-Election – West Kwaio Electoral Constituency: Candidate Nominations closed
August 11, 2022
“If only voters are informed with correct information that should help them to participate fully, and if only voters understand electoral processes and systems that assures them of their security and secrecy of their votes and participation, they can be confident and motivated to freely exercise their right by casting an informed and correct vote for a desired leadership”.
“And if only awareness teams are well trained and given the right information, supported with adequate resources to enable them to reach individual communities and hold well-presented awareness information sessions, then we can be assured that voters will be informed and be able to vote wisely”
These are the words of the Civic and Voter Awareness training workshop facilitator Mrs Philothea Paul during the Workshop in Gizo last week.
“These are the key objectives of this 4 days training workshop”, Mrs Paul said
Chief Electoral Officer and Commissioner (Acting) Mr Fredrick Bosoboe Congratulates the Civic Teams from Western and Choiseul provinces for Successfully completed the four days training Workshop Last Week.
“Congratulations Western and Choiseul Civic and voter awareness teams for your time and commitment to successfully complete the civic and voter awareness Training Workshop”, Mr Bosoboe said.
It was an intense four (4) days training delivery as civic teams from Choiseul and Western Provinces are equipped with theoretical content and practical sessions in preparing them for the planned provincial wide face to face civic and voter awareness program in the next couple weeks.
Civic and voter awareness teams have worked, walked and talked it through in understanding a full electoral knowledge information package covering topics from governance and election, gender and social inclusive, planning, budgeting and finances including introductory chapters on preparations and delivering a face-to-face awareness program.
It was a great deal of learning new knowledge acquired during the training, as many has attested to and have expressed in the training evaluations. It is also an eye opener for many and the Electoral Office has been able to gain more confidence in its electoral processes.
“When I heard people talking about election, the first thought that came to my mind is corruption and this workshop is an eye opener for me as I now come to understand the processes of election “Mrs Freda Moveni from North Vella la Vella shared her sentiment after the training.
“All I do is cast my ballot paper in exercising my right to vote without understanding what it means. From this training, I now came to realise that its more than casting a vote. I now understand and be able to link my vote to the bigger picture in governance and leadership”, Mr Jeff Nick of North East Choiseul Constituency also expressed.
Both provincial teams are expected to deploy into their respective constituencies over the weekend to start conducting awareness programs in the communities from 26th July to 17th August, 2022.
The civic teams will move in advance of the registration and election teams with all civic and voter messages, preaching the importance of participating, exercising their rights taking part in the higher decision-making process with their ballots in a correct way.
The teams will be moving ahead with the voter registration BVR team movement schedule, to pin up in communities to aware people on when the teams will be coming to and closer to their villages.
They will advance with the message to eligible registrants who require to register for the first time and those who need to updated their voter details to be able to do so when the teams come around to their villages and communities, encouraging them to register.
Registration is a must to exercising your voting right is one of the messages as the law requires a voter to appear on the voter list on a polling day before be able to be given a ballot paper to make her choice in choosing his/her representative on a poling day, Mrs Paul said.
“The message on what it means with the phase ‘the power of the ballot paper’ and What it means, ‘to updating your voter details and what to do’ are some of the messages that these team will be preaching during their visits in the communities”, She adds.
It is a complete pack for voters to be informed on information that will motivate them to participate in the democratic process of election.
Mr Bosoboe, Acting CEO, highlighted that to have face-to-face awareness programs are never cheap in the context of Solomon Islands and to bring such programs to Choiseul and Western Provinces with many scattered Islands will be logistically challenging.
In enabling this important project to roll out to our communities in Choiseul and Provinces, Solomon Islands Electoral Commission greatly appreciates the continuous support from its UNDP Project Strengthening Electoral Cycle in Solomon Islands Project – SECSIP for co-funding this face-to-face awareness program.
SIEO urged communities in and around Western and Choiseul Provinces to look out for these awareness groups to support and receive them into their communities.
Check your community notice boards for the schedules for these visits of these awareness teams and the registration data teams. These schedules will also be posted out on Electoral Commission Official website: www.siec.gov.sb or on Electoral Commission Face Book page.
For enquiries, you can also call the enquiry line on Phone 7222200.
