VOTER Registration in the Central Islands province has progressed well at around 70 percent completion after a period of two weeks.
Registration officers were deployed to Gela Islands, Savo and the Russell Islands over the last two weeks prior to the start of the registration process on September 3.
In Gela constituency alone, 18 voter registration centers (VRC) out of the 27 VRCs were completed during the two weeks period. The remaining 9 VRCs are expected to be completed well ahead of the September 27 deadline.
Central Islands Registration Officer, John Rapemora said he was pleased with the progress made so far and his team is expected to complete the process ahead of the deadline.
Mr Rapemora said data collected from the first nine VRCs on Gela has already been sent to the Electoral Commission Head Office in Honiara for compilation last week.
The registration process in the Central Islands province has been progressing smoothly without any disturbances.
Rapemora said they are expecting an increase of around 10 percent in most VRCs compared to the 2014 voter registration figures.
This is due to an expected increase in the number of eligible voters who were aged 18 years and over after the last registration process prior to the 2014 National General Election.
With regards to cross constituency registration, data collected so far has indicated a very small number of people.
This was attributed mostly to returning residents to their villages who were either absent during the last registration or who have registered in other constituencies during the same period.
Mr Rapemora said people who have concerns with cross constituency registration will have the opportunity to object any persons during the objection and omission period when the updated provisional voter list is published.
Across the country, more than 50,000 new voters are expected to be added to the 286,000 strong roll which was last updated in 2014.
–GCU
