Cabinet declines submission to increase electoral candidate nomination fees

Cabinet has declined a submission to increase the nomination fees for candidates wishing to stand at the up-coming general elections. 

BCN News reported that the Government was considering increasing this fee however the Director General of the Ministry of Social Services Gaylene Tasmania has confirmed that Cabinet did not agree to the increase. 

Currently the fee is $11.50 which is the lowest electoral candidate nomination fee in the Pacific if not the world. 

In Samoa it will cost a candidate $300 tala and in Nauru a candidate nomination fee is $500 Australian dollars. In the Cook islands it will cost a candidate $500 to put their name on the ballot paper. 

In the Solomon Islands the candidate nomination fee is about $970 New Zealand dollars and in New Zealand a candidate’s nomination fee is about $340 

High Nomination fees in some Pacific countries have been blamed for the low number of women candidates contesting general elections.