Focus on National Race Excludes Local Contests, Electoral Chief Discusses Pre-Polling Challenges
Police officers and electoral officials commenced the 2024 Joint Election with early voting on Friday, 5 April 2024. A total of 1,026 officials have signed up for pre-poll voting, which saw the establishment of 19 pre-poll voting stations nationwide.
The pre-poll voting focused exclusively on the national election, omitting provincial and city council races, despite a joint election scheduled for April 17th.
Jasper Anisi, the Chief Electoral Officer, emphasized that pre-poll voters understood that their ballots were solely for their national parliamentary candidate and had agreed to forgo their vote for provincial and city council elections. Anisi explained that due to this being the country’s first experience with joint elections, the Electoral Office was navigating uncharted territory, hence the decision to limit pre-poll voting to the national parliament only. He expressed the possibility of refining the pre-poll voting system in the future, noting the absence of specific laws or regulations governing pre-poll voting.
Officials participating in pre-poll voting will be on duty during Election Day and had previously applied to be included in the pre-poll voter list.
