A Member of Parliament for the Tautua Samoa Party, Aveau Niko Palamo, has accused the Office of the Electoral Commission (O.E.C) of not informing the public about online registrations.
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“I just found out today (Tuesday) that people can register online and do their transfers,” he said. “In think that’s very unfair.”
The Member of Parliament said the Office should have notified members of the public well in advance to avoid the inconvenience of them having to stand in the boiling sun to queue up at Mulinu’u.
For the past few days leading up until Tuesday, thousands of voters had spent hours lining up at Mulinuu to register and transfer their votes. On Tuesday night, the O.E.C worked until 5am Wednesday morning to complete the registration process because voters continued to queue well past midnight.
Aveau said a lot of the problems could have been avoided if members of the public were aware about online registrations.
Asked how he felt about the lack of awareness, Aveau said people who registered online should not be voting in the March election.
The M.P. said the Tautua Party had pushed for an online registration system to be used in Parliament.
It was now available, but the party did not know that, he said.
He felt it had not been properly advertised.
Acting Electoral Commissioner, Faimalootumua Mathew Lemisio, confirmed an online system was available. He said it had been open for the past two months, but only those needing to transfer their registration could use the system.
Faimalootumua said the system has an online form for people to download and fill in.
It still needed to be brought or sent into the office for approval, however.
The Associate Minister for the Ministry of the Prime Minister, Peseta Vaifou Tevaga, said he was unaware of the internet system.
“That is unfair because they said the mayor or the church minister should be present when a voter needs to transfer their registration,” he said.
“How can the mayor or the church minister confirm this member if they registered online?” The online registrations closed Tuesday as well as all voter registrations.
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