ID Warning

Breach of law to keep other people’s ID card
Solomon Islands Electoral Commission (SIEC) has warned individuals or groups from taking possession of ID cards that belongs to any eligible voter because its an offence.

In a statement, the chief electoral officer (CEO) Polycarp Haununu appealed to those who have already registered and those who are yet to do so,  to refrain from supplying their voter ID cards to others.

“Refrain from giving voter ID cards to individuals or groups that might claim responsibility in keeping other peoples’ cards.”

He said its important for voters to take care of their ID cards and not to give it out to someone else.

“All eligible voters must take responsibility in keeping their own cards.

“If you are eighteen (18) years and above it is your democratic right to take ownership and responsibility in keeping your own card.

“It is an offence for someone else to take possession of your ID cards. Keep your cards in a safe place until election day for you to bring to the polling stations.”

The statement comes following reports claiming that some current Members of Parliament (MP) and intending candidates are buying ID cards from registered voters.

And this has irked the Joint Civil Society Groups & Concerned Citizens (JCSG & CC) who also raised their concern.

In a statement yesterday the group said it is seriously concerned that Solomon Islands is likely to be denied ‘free and fair’ elections this year.

The group’s statement said the new Biometric Voter Registration (BRV) system whilst addressing election malpractices such as double-registration and/or double-voting has significantly increased ‘vote-buying’ and ‘political patronage’.

The interim chairman of JCSG & CC and acting chief executive officer (CEO) of ANSI Mr Barnabas Henson said: “The country’s weak economic situation compounded by corruption has forced eligible voters to substitute their long-term wellbeing for immediate benefits by selling their voter identification cards.

“Hence the newly introduced voter identification card has allegedly become the newest and most highly demanded commodity on the market right now.

The JCSG & CC said its understood that a good majority of registered voters who have registered in Honiara and at the out-of-constituency voter registration centre also in the capital have allegedly ‘sold’ or traded their voter ID cards to MPs and other intending candidates for money, material, school fees, food, gifts, etc.

“There has also been allegations that certain MPs as well as intending candidates have dispatched teams of agents into constituencies supposedly to ‘recruit’ people for registration, offering transport, food, money, and goods in exchange for voter ID cards.”

Mr Henson added: “This is destroying the credibility of the whole election process and essentially denies the nation of ‘free and fair’ elections thereby further destroying our future.

“Furthermore, the practise has significantly increased the cost of contesting elections whereby credible candidates are being denied fair chances of contesting. The situation entails candidates ‘buying’ votes instead of ‘winning’ them.
“Can we say then that this is a free and fair process? Most certainly not, in our view. It is profoundly undemocratic and constitute serious breaches of Solomon Islands laws.”

The Statement added that; “The electoral office must quickly move to mitigate the issue or expect to deal with significant problems during election time.

“As an immediate measure of control, we strongly suggest that the electoral office embark on a mass voter ID card re-call or retrieval exercise to collect and retain ID cards and only have them dispatched to voting centres for verification against voting lists immediately prior to voting day. If this should increase the cost of running the election then it surely will be money well-spent for the benefit the whole nation.

“Otherwise all ‘right-minded’ Solomon Islanders are urged to report incidences of ‘vote-buying’ to the police or the electoral office. It’s high time we correctly exercise our right to influence and determine our nation’s future for the sake of our children,” Mr Henson said.

Meanwhile Mr Haununu reminded all eligible voters to register only once.
He said double registration is a serious offence in this new biometric voter registration system.

“False declaration in filling in the registration form B is an offence punishable by law, so all eligible electors must refrain from doing so.”

This week marks the second week since the start of the voting registration which will run for 40 days.

On Monday in Honiara more people turned up to the Art Gallery and other registration centres to register.

Source: Solomon Star

Solomon Islands Students Allowance delay

The current delay of allowance faced by Solomon Islands students studying at the university of the South Pacific (USP) has raised concern over the student body (SISA). It is now week 3 however, the students have never received their monthly  allowances.  

Students are faced with real issues that without money, it will continue on. Those residing off-campus have been chased off by their landlords for non payment of monthly rentals. Most of the rentals are for the months of June, April and August. Besides that, others manage to stay on since their landlords are too lenient but have difficulties with electricity and water bills. Others even do not have cash to pay for their empty gas. Apart from those residential hiccups are the classroom ones. Approximately 99.8 % of the students are without text books. Most attended tutorials without knowing which questions the tutor refers to when he/she said, turn to page 115 exercise 7 for instance. The minute the tutor picked a student to answer the question, situation get worse and so embarrassed when the pick was a Solomon Islands student. Most get fired when they could not answer the question. The usual response was, "we do not have text book that is why we cannot answer the tutorial questions". Learning in such an environment without having proper learning materials is indeed very difficult. From the general observation, most SI students are still roaming around the campus without stencils like pen, text books ,exercise and tutorial books.

A recent meeting organized by the SISA aimed to find ways to settle the issue was not attended by the majority of the student. Although the agenda of the meeting was to find resolution to end the issue, the SISA body finds it pretty hard to submit formal report to NTU since the quorum is not met. However, SISA will still pursue the issue until it reaches NTU.

Is Faith an Action?

Since I was a kid, from my Sunday school class, I was told to have faith. My Sunday school teachers always emphasize the importance of having faith. An action with no faith attached, is dead. One Sunday morning, as I can recalled, my teacher stood in front with her yellow cover bible opened, she raised her voice and begun reading from Hebrews 11:16. But without faith [it is] impossible to please [him]: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and [that] he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

The scripture highlights two important concepts about faith.The first is about pleasing God. To please God, we need to have faith. The second is believing in God. We must believe that God is the rewarder to those who seek Him. Yet these explanations does not disclosed the realities about Faith. The question, what is Faith is still a mystery? Today -5th May 2013, after 30 years,finally I came to a complete realization that the word Faith is an action word. We can say, it's a verb, a doing word. An action word. Understanding the definition is different from putting into practice the word Faith.To illustrate, let's analyze the story of Abraham (Gen 22:1 - 19). God commands Abraham to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice. How Abraham response to God's command was an interesting act. The bible told us that Abraham, on the next day, took his son up to the mountain for sacrificial. Abraham does not think about the road or the climb to the mountain or even how he's going to sacrifice his son. His response was an act of Faith. He put God's command into action. That's where Faith comes in. Putting God's command into action is Faith. Understanding, analyzing and studying God's command is not Faith. This is where most people fail in life. We know Faith, we know how to believe but we don't know how to practice God's command.

Is Faith an Action? Yes, from our analysis, we discovered that Faith is an action based on God's command. Now here's another God's command that many people have been blessed by putting it into practice. It's about tithing. Bring the full amount of your tithes to the temple, so that will be plenty of food there. Put me to the test and you will see that I will open the windows of heaven and pour out on you abundance all kinds of good things (Malachi 3: 10). To cause God to open the windows of heaven, we need to give our tithes. Understanding the command will never open the store house of heaven, studying it daily with out action is useless. God's store house can only be opened when we start giving our tithes.

I believe you know how to have Faith. When and on what to apply faith on. If you understand these simple formulas, blessing will be on your way. Blessing will be your disaster on every season.