Final Voter List Approved

Pursuant to Section 48 of the Electoral Act 2018 the Solomon Islands Electoral Commission has now approved the final list of electors (Voter List) for publication.

Overall the list of electors has increased from 287,567 voters in 2014, to 359,690 in 2019.

That is an increase of 72,123 voters in the 4.5 years between the first time the List was created in 2014 and the final list we now have in 2019.

Based on the data, two of the three Honiara based Constituencies have the greatest number of voters on the final list, with Central Honiara on 15,987, and East Honiara with 15,446.

A total of eight Constituencies have 10,000 or more registered voters.

The highest increase from 2014 to 2019 is West Honiara, increasing by 4,908, from 5,735 to 10,643 –  a percentage increase of 85.58%;

Two Constituencies have decreased in numbers from 2014 to 2019.  South New Georgia/Rendova decreases by 376 voters (-8.09%); and Small Malaita by 472 voters (-5.54%).  These decreases are due to population shifts and cross border registrations.

In terms of gender registrants, 174,587 registered voters are female (48.54%); and 185,103 are male (51.46%).

Chief Electoral Officer Mose Saitala said now that we have finalised the list of voters for each constituency, our staff will work closely with officials at the constituency level to try and assign voters to the polling stations nearest to their place of residence.

“We are working on ensuring that a particular polling station does not cater for more than 500 voters”.

“Where the number of voters in that area exceeds 500, we would consider establishing another polling station. Special consideration will also be made to add another polling station to specific areas where the distance between polling are too far from each other” Mr. Saitala said.

He said while most of the 856 polling stations used in 2014 would be used once again, “we anticipate that an additional of about 400 polling stationswill be established around the country to better facilitate a voter’s access to exercise his or her democratic right to vote”.

“While the Voters’ List will be published throughout the country in the coming days, the same List will be published by way of SIEC’s website. The CEO, pursuant to Section 50 of the Electoral Act, may also allow political parties and candidates to have access to an ‘Extract Copy’ of the Voters’ List upon payment of a fee as prescribed by Regulation.” Mr. Saitala said.

The CEO added that the Biometric Voter Registration process has been long and onerous and being able to get to this point of the process on time, despite the many challenges along the way, is a testament to the hard work and perseverance of all electoral officials in the field and at the Solomon Islands Electoral Office.