CHIEF Electoral Officer (CEO) and Commissioner Jasper Highwood Anisi has confirmed that a total of 39 pre-polling ballot papers for the three constituencies in Isabel Province were not included in the counting of ballots for the constituencies.
The three constituencies are Gao-Bugotu, Hograno- Kia-Havulei and Maringe- Kokota.
CEO Anisi said during the counting process for these three constituencies, a total of 39 pre-poll ballot papers were unfortunately not counted and the respective Returning Officers had already declared the winners.
CEO Anisi said he had already reached out to the winning candidates informing them about the uncounted pre-poll ballot papers that were not included in the final count.
He said that the commission are also aware that Section 106 of the Electoral Act states that the respective Returning Officers could not review their own decisions after declaring the results.
“The Returning Officers were in legal terms considered ‘functus officio’ and the only authority able to review the decisions of the returning officers is the High Court of Solomon Islands,” CEO Anisi said.
The 39 pre-poll ballot papers were sent from Honiara to the three constituencies were Gao-Bugotu – 13 ballot papers, Hograno-Kia-Havulei – 15 ballot papers and Maringe-Kokota – 11 ballot papers. And the difference between the declared successful candidates and the first runner-up were Gao-Bugotu – 13, Hograno-Kia-Havulei – 2113 and Maringe-Kokota – 106.
CEO Anisi outlined that for the constituency of Gao-Bugotu, the result may be affected since the margin between the winning candidate and the first runner-up is 13 and the total number of pre-poll ballot papers for that constituency is also 13 if all the pre-poll ballot papers were voted in favour of the first runner-up.
Therefore, he added SIEC has decided to write to the Attorney General requesting him to issue a status petition under Section 109 of the Electoral Act to enable the High Court to open the envelope of uncounted pre-poll ballot papers to determine the manner in which those 13 voters had voted.
“The SIEC acknowledges the error made and has taken pro-active steps to rectify them within the law,” CEO Anisi stated.
For the other two constituencies Hograno-Kia-Havulei and Maringe-Kokota, the non-counting of the pre-poll ballots will not affect the final results since the difference in votes cast between the successful candidates and the first runner-up were far greater than the uncounted pre-poll ballot papers.
By IAN LADDS OSO
Solomon Star, Honiara
