An anti-corruption watchdog in the Solomon Islands has called for a blanket ban on the buying or collecting of voter registration cards.
Transparency Solomon Islands says it has received a report that a prospective election candidate in Honiara is buying the registration cards from people and issuing them his own cards as replacements.
The TSI Executive Officer, Daniel Fenua, says a whistle-blower went to seek assistance from the intended candidate and was told to bring along his card.
He was then told the card would be returned days before the national election later this year.
TSI says it believes there are over 2000 cases of card-buying.
Mr Fenua says the new rules around the Biometric Voter Registration system are not publicly available, but says people entitled to vote must be free to vote for any candidate they choose, without undue influence or coercion of any kind.
He says that on election day voters can actually cast their votes without using the ID cards.
