No Cell Phones in the Voting Booth

Josephine Tamai

Nomination Day paves the way for Election Day. The voters list for the municipal election shows that there are one hundred and fourteen thousand five hundred and seventy-four persons eligible to vote, as of January tenth, 2018 – which was the final day of registration for the voters in the March elections. There are more women than men: fifty-eight thousand three hundred and fifty-three compared to fifty-six thousand two hundred and twenty-one, who are men. There is also an increase in the younger voting population. While generally the process remains the same, Tamai says that the use of cell phones when inside the polling stations is prohibited.

Josephine Tamai, Chief Elections Officer

“The process remains the same, but I’ll tell you in terms of the issue when it comes to the use of cell phones, we’ve always had problems with persons attempting to use cell phones in the polling station. So this time we have gone one step further to ask the presiding officers to please ensure that they inform the voters that the use of cell phones is prohibited within the polling stations. Actually, S.I. number forty-four of 2008 is the law in force which prohibits the use of those cell phones. So we have asked the presiding officer to ensure that they inform persons to put away their cell phones because if persons are found using their cell phones within the polling stations, then the presiding officers will take action and the person will be charged. So we will encourage persons to not take your cell phones in; but the law doesn’t prohibit you from taking it in, but it prohibits the use of it. So you cannot be answering a telephone call, you cannot be texting or taking photographs or doing anything because again the law prohibits the taking of photographs, recordings within the polling stations.”