by Ednal Palmer
A large number of candidates who contested the April 2024 Joint Elections in Solomon Islands are facing hefty penalties.
This is for failing to submit campaign expense reports in compliance with the Electoral Act and Provincial Assemblies and Honiara City Council Electoral regulations 2024.
The 90-day legal period given for all candidates to submit their campaign expense reports as required by the Electoral Act, lapses today July 29th.
From recent updates, only less than half of candidates who contested the National Parliamentary, Provincial and Honiara City Council seats submitted their campaign expense reports.
The Solomon Islands Electoral Office are finalizing data on the submissions and will make them available this week.
A total of 334 candidates contested the 2024 National Parliamentary seats, 816 contested the provincial seats and 89 for the Honiara City Council.
That poor response persisted despite various strong calls and advices from the Solomon Islands Electoral Commission since results were announced.
Disclosure of election campaign-related expenses is a legal requirement for candidates contesting the Parliament, Provincial Assembly and Honiara City Council elections.
Section 69 of the Electoral Act 2018 and Regulations 52 & 53 of the Provincial Assemblies and Honiara City Council Election Regulation 2024 require all candidates contesting in the Parliamentary, Provincial Assembly and Honiara City Council elections, to submit their election campaign-related expenses within 90 days from the date after the results were published in the gazette.
It is clear from the election offences that failure to comply with that legal requirement is an offense which carries a maximum penalty of $20,000 fine or 2 years imprisonment, or both.
An additional fine of $100 will be charged each day starting tomorrow, for candidates who fail to submit their campaign expenses reports.
Photo Caption: 𝚃𝚠𝚘 𝚏𝚎𝚖𝚊𝚕𝚎 𝚌𝚊𝚗𝚍𝚒𝚍𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚜 𝚠𝚑𝚘 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚢𝚎𝚊𝚛’𝚜 𝙹𝚘𝚒𝚗𝚝 𝙴𝚕𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚜, 𝙰𝚗𝚗𝚒𝚎 𝚁𝚊𝚏𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚒 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝙵𝚕𝚘𝚛𝚛𝚒𝚎 𝙰𝚕𝚊𝚕𝚘 𝚜𝚞𝚋𝚖𝚒𝚝𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚒𝚛 𝚌𝚊𝚖𝚙𝚊𝚒𝚐𝚗 𝚎𝚡𝚙𝚎𝚗𝚜𝚎 𝚛𝚎𝚙𝚘𝚛𝚝𝚜 𝚕𝚊𝚜𝚝 𝚠𝚎𝚎𝚔 𝚋𝚎𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚍𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚎.