The Office of the Electoral Commission (O.E.C.) is boosting and sharing ideas with electoral offices from all over the Pacific in preparation for the upcoming General Elections in 2026.

Held at Taumesina Islands Resort earlier this week, the Pacific Roll Integrity conference was held for three days and attended by 14 Pacific countries including New Zealand and Australia, to boost the capacity of electoral systems and offices in the Pacific as well as their capacity.

In an interview with the Samoa Observer, Assistant Commissioner of O.E.C, Vitilevu Simati said the workshop not only helps them share knowledge and information about voter registration but it is also a way of building their capacity and learning more about elections in different systems available for registering eligible voters.

"The Pacific Roll Integrity is about that and given that we are running a campaign of reregistering all our eligible voters for Samoa in preparations for 2026 General Elections," she said.

"We see that the Office of the Commissioner has noted one of the most very important and good opportunities to host this regional workshop and it's really looking at the integrity of the role including, "Is the role credible?", 'How can we share knowledge with other Pacific election bodies to improve the electoral role'.

"So not only for Samoa but also for all the Pacific nations. We started off with our first session, we had our live presentations with members from IFES (International Foundation for Electoral Systems).

"It was a very informative presentation where we learnt so much about different systems that other countries use to register eligible voters.

"In the takeaway for there is a biometric, there is a manual system, and for that, in the case of Samoa, our biometric that we use is your photo and also your fingerprint.

"This workshop gives us a good opportunity to share and learn more about different systems and about the pros and cons of voter registration system and our takeout is to give us ideas to learn more and ensure that in  preparations for the 2026 General Elections, we get to have a credible role in place for our upcoming election."

It is an initiative funded by the Government of New Zealand with the assistance of PIANZEA (Pacific Islands, Australia and New Zealand Electoral Administrators' Network).

Recently O.E.C introduced the online register where voters in Samoa who qualify can apply online.