‘Tender Ballots’, Counting Venue Issues
Solomon Islands election results coming in at a trickle.
Human error and venue complications hampered the first day of counting in Solomon Islands joint election but a steady stream of provisional results are expected on Thursday as more counting centres come online.
Ironically, the three constituencies in the capital Honiara - where the headquarters of the Solomon Islands Electoral Commission is located - are among the places where counting is yet to begin. This is because the main counting venue was found to be too small so an additional counting location had to be found and prepared. Some mistakes made by electoral officials during polling have also surfaced prompting concerns from counting agents representing election candidates.
‘Tender ballots’
The most significant and widespread mistake so far has been the issuing of the wrong kind of ballot paper called “tender ballots”. These special ballots were only meant to be used if a voter turned up at a polling station and someone else had already voted under their name.
Chief electoral officer Jasper Anisi announced on Wednesday that the commission will be validating all tender ballots as it was not the voters’ fault that the error occurred, and it would be unfair to disenfranchise them for an administrative mistake.
When pressed on how this could have happened, Anisi said it came down to poor ballot paper design as the normal ballot paper and the tender ballot paper are identical on the front facing side.
It is not until you fold them over that you can see the colour indicator used to differentiate between the two.
Anisi said they had considered making different coloured ballot papers but when samples were printed they found it also changed the tone and hue of election candidates’ colours and symbols.
“So we decided lets make them all white in colour (on the front facing side) and put the differentiating colours on the back so that when you fold the ballot paper (to drop it in the ballot box) then it will be pink, yellow or green,” he said.
As to exactly how many tendered ballot papers were incorrectly used, Anisi said they would not know until the end of the counting process, but he thinks it will be in the hundreds.
Attorney-General John Muria (Jnr) said in this instance the commission is well within its powers to validate incorrectly used ballot papers so as not to disenfranchise voters but anyone who is unhappy with the decision is free to challenge it in court after the election.
Sogavare critic Daniel Suidani wins provincial seat
Regarding provisional results which the electoral commission was expected to officially announce on Friday morning, the most interesting to come in so far is that the incumbent premier for Malaita Province Martin Fini has not been re-elected.
However, his political rival Daniel Suidani has been re-elected. Fini ousted Suidani as premier in April 2023 through a motion of no confidence that was shrouded in controversy with allegations of national government interference. Suidani was the most outspoken critic of caretaker prime minister Manasseh Sogavare and the decision to switch diplomatic ties from Taiwan to China in 2019.
On the national front, some provisional results are also starting to come in.
An interesting one in Makira Province is that the incumbent MP for Ulawa Ugi constituency Willie Bradford Marau has been re-elected.
Marau served as the Minister of Commerce, Industries Labour and Immigration in the former government and is a member of incumbent prime minister Sogavare’s OUR Party.