Elections and Boundaries Department Ramps Up Preparations for March 12 General Elections

The Elections and Boundaries Department is now ramping up its preparations for the upcoming General Elections. With the elections some four weeks away, the department would have to ensure the printing of ballots, the assignments of polling stations as well as the human resources to man each area.  While many were waiting on the government’s announcement of the date for the general elections, Chief Elections Officer Josephine Tamai told Love News that there works began months ago as they knew that this year would be an election year.  As for the electorate, CEO Tamai noted that the deadline for new registration for voters has passed.   

Josephine Tamai, Chief Elections Officer: “We know that today the Prime Minister also announced the date for nomination, which would be the 24th of February. So that is the date that we will know the persons will be contesting the elections. One of the things that I need to inform the public and a release has been put out in terms of the cutoff dates for persons who are eligible to vote in this election. And so with nomination day being the 24th of February, the cut-off dates for persons who would be able to vote in this election would have gone and so the 10th of January would have been the last dates for persons to register to be eligible to vote in this election. As of January 2025 we have a total of 204,378 persons who are registered as electors. So 204,378 is the number of persons who are eligible to vote in this election.”

Another aspect of preparations at the Elections and Boundaries is training.  According to CEO Tamai, the staff has been undergoing training in terms of the logistics on Election Day as well as the processes and protocols at each polling station.   

Josephine Tamai, Chief Elections Officer: “We will note that election date was announced today and so the appointment of returning officers and election clerks those have been don because we were preparing from a very long time ago because we all know that 2025 is an election year. And so as a department, from last year, we have started to prepare for election in the event that it was being called at any time because we know that the Prime Minister would be able to determined if there will be elections before November. And so as a department we always ensure every single month that we are in election mode, because again, yes you have a general election but we also do by election. And so we always have to be prepared. So preparations are already being made in regards to that. And so the appointment of public officers, who are the persons who actually conduct elections on election day, those we are currently working on, and so we’re basically finalizing those as we speak. In terms of the nomination stations, well, again, those have already been published. And so the nomination stations are those will be in the gazette, in the newspapers and so persons will know where to go to get nominated for each of the 31 electoral revisions. In terms of the polling and counting stations we’re currently finalizing those, fine-tuning those, because at the end of the day we already have recommendations for those. And so by this weekend those will be published in the newspapers and we also have them on our website. So basically we have those finalized and so that information will be out to the public.”

Registered voters who are not in possession of their Voters ID should check at their divisional offices for pickup.