Elections office verifies voter data

October 13, 2012 | Filed under: Fiji News | Posted by: newsroom
By Maika Bolatiki

The Elections Office is currently verifying the data of close to half-a-million Fijians who registered during the first phase of Electronic Voter Registration (EVR).

This process is undertaken to “cleanse” the voter list, by ensuring accurate voter information and eliminating duplicate and fraudulent entries.

The Permanent Secretary Electoral Reforms, Mere Vuniwaqa, said that this exercise would result in a clean voter list and a clear understanding of the distribution and demographics of registration to better cater for specific needs during the second phase of registration.

There are close to thirty registration clerks who have undergone extensive training to carry out the adjudication process.

“One of the clerks’ major responsibilities is to examine the voter list to locate entries with similar or identical voter information,” the Permanent Secretary said.

“Such cases usually indicate that an individual has registered more than once.”

The Elections Office is also cross-checking the information collected through the written application forms with the information entered into the electronic database, to ensure that the data (such as the spelling of an individual’s name) has been entered correctly.

Once this exercise has been completed, the Provisional Roll of every Fijian who has so far registered to vote in the 2014 General Election will be made available to the public at District Offices. The public will then have the opportunity to examine the Roll and notify the Elections Office of any errors or anomalies with particular voters’ information.”

The period of data verification and analysis is expected to conclude soon. In November, the second phase of registration will commence for those Fijians who have not yet registered.