Vanuatu Mobile Force (VMF), the paramilitary arm of the Vanuatu Police Force, is providing round the clock security at the Electoral Office in Port Vila.
Acting Principal Electoral Officer Joe Johnson Iati said members of the VMF have been at the Electoral Office for the past two weeks assisting hundreds of people to get proxies and duplicate cards for the polls.
Around 200,000 registered voters will cast their ballots for the 362 candidates contesting the Pacific Island nation’s snap election, scheduled for this Friday, 22 January. Polling booths will open from 7.30 in the morning.
A total of Vt70 million has gone into printing the ballot papers which were completed Thursday last week by Sun Production printers.
Neighboring Solomon Islands has dispatched its patrol boat RSIPV Lata to assist the Electoral Office with ferrying of ballot boxes and ballot papers to the remotest areas of the country, especially areas in the north including Pentecost, Ambae, Maewo, and the Banks and Torres groups.
So far, 40 multinational observers including from the Commonwealth, the Pacific Islands Forum, the Melanesian Spearhead Group – from Fiji, Solomon Islands and New Caledonia, and others are in the country as part of the teams that will be observing how the elections are being conducted.
They have been meeting various government, civil society and private sector representatives as part of their tasks in the lead up to the polls. Candidates have until midnight tonight to end their campaigns....