Ballot papers secure: Clancy
Members of the public have been assured of the integrity of the electoral process.
Deputy Supervisor of Elections Michael Clancy made this statement yesterday after he was asked about the security of ballot papers during an open forum facilitated by the Electoral Commission.
“The ballot paper will also have some security features which we will obviously not tell people what they are but if people try to make their own ballot papers we would know so we are taking all those sorts of things into account,” Mr Clancy said.
Citizens Constitutional Forum’s executive director Reverend Akuila Yabaki asked the Commission to consider the needs of voters with special needs.
He said, voters with special needs had to be provided with people they trusted to assist them while casting their votes.
However, Mr Clancy said, “The process in each polling station is that the presiding officer and one of the staff members will give the assistance. They will have two day training and part of that training is how to assist voters and also one of this is impartiality.
They wil have to sign a code of conduct. We will be very aware of the needs of these voters and in assisting people.”
He also reassured members of the public that each polling station would have an adequate number of ballot papers and voters would only be given the chance of getting two ballot papers and not more.
“There will adequate ballot papers at all polling stations and it will be guarded by security every time it is transported. According to the provisions in the electoral decree there will be ten per cent more. ”
Supervisor of Elections Mohammed Saneem also clarified that that the 48-hour blackout before the election also applied to media organisations using social media.
More than twenty people attended the forum at the Civic Centre in Suva yesterday.
