PORT VILA (Pacnews) — Dozens of voters in Vanuatu’s election, held nearly two weeks ago, will appear in court charged with double voting.
Assistant Police Commissioner Paul Willie Reuben says a campaign asking the public to report fraudulent voters is still having an effect, and he says they will take another month to process more allegations. Vanautu has long faced claims that election results have been marred by fake voting, but this is the first time that people have been charged.
Reuben says that with the record number of parties and independent candidates, police felt they had to take the initiative.
“If we don’t do anything about it then the future of Vanuatu in the general election would be in a different situation. So that is why we did initiate it with assistance from the electoral office. They have also come up with people who have registered twice. They have given us all this information in advance before the elections,” Reuben said.
Meanwhile, the Electoral Commission says it will not have official results from the poll before Friday evening.
It had initially expected to release the results Wednesday.
