Green card now an invalid ID
THE green coloured voter card has expired and is no longer a valid ID, says Supervisor of Elections Mohammed Saneem.
“I understand a certain politician is now finally down to the argument about where is the expiry date on the card, I refer that person to Section 19D of the Electoral Registration of Voters Act which allows us to expire a card so that we can upgrade the security features or the information contained in the card,” he said.
He said one of the major differences between the blue and the green card, aside from the colour was that it contained the polling venue details of the voter.
“Now, this is the most critical information in a system like Fiji is where the electoral system requires you to vote where you are assigned.
“If you look at the context, from 2012 when the registration started, the electoral system was not known so registration was taking place, people were getting registered.
“The details that were on the cards from 2012 was accurate in terms of the names of the people, the place where they were residing, however, in terms of its relations to the electoral system which was known from 2013 and then 2014 is to say first you can vote only where you are assigned.”
He said, therefore “common sense dictates that the card should also state the venue of the person where they have to vote which is what is now happening”.
“Now how far back did we announce that the cards will be expiring, as early as if you remember in 2018 the electoral commission launched the blue card and the green card was said to be valid until this election and then it will expire.
“So it has expired.
“I noticed a particular columnist saying that ‘who will stop me from taking the green card to vote’, of course, nobody will stop you from taking the green card to vote but your green card is no longer a valid ID.
“When you come to vote, you can vote with any ID, you can even vote without an ID provided you turn up to the right polling station.”