30 Jul 2013

Watchdog says politicans complicit in Vanuatu election breaches

3:14 pm on 30 July 2013

Transparency International Vanuatu says major fraud took place in last year's election and it wants a complete overhaul of the electoral system.

The organisation has completed a report which found discrepancies in voter registration and a lack of transparency in the second count of the votes.

The chairperson Marie-Noelle Ferrieux-Patterson, believes politicians over the years have made sure the Electoral Commission is starved of funds because they want to retain a system that can be mis-used.

She says an accurate voter registration roll is desperately needed.

"We found that from the electoral roll that there were 192,000 registered voters when in fact compared to the population that is more than 18 years old we should have only 120,000 people."

Marie-Noelle Ferrieux-Patterson says electoral officers whose job it is to ensure voter registration, need to be screened because they were originally chosen by politicians a long time ago.