 The St. Lucia Electoral Department has heightened operations in preparation for the 2021 general elections constitutionally due in October. The department has launched a registration mobile unit to assist citizens in ensuring they exercise their franchise. Voter registration is very important in that it is considered the first step in the process that allows an individual to exercise their franchise. Their registration process is free and is described as permanent, continuous and personal. A person is qualifying to be registered as an Elector in an Electoral District, only if on the qualifying date the individual is a citizen of St. Lucia, or Commonwealth citizen residing continuously in St. Lucia for not less than 7 years, immediately preceding the qualifying date. The individual has attained 18 years of age and has resided continuously in that Electoral District for a period of at least two months preceding the qualifying date. Assistant Chief Elections Officer in the St. Lucia Electoral Department, Olympia Lionel, indicated that the Electoral Department has intensified its efforts to ensure all individuals have afforded the opportunity to register and thus exercise their franchise. This year, because of COVID, we extended our services beyond. We have a number of outdoor centers where we have continuous registration in those centers, open Monday to Friday. We also implemented a mobile service where we will go into the various communities like constituencies for the weekends. We will go into the various constituencies. Right now we are in Trousel and what we are doing that to achieve, we find sometimes during the election period, persons with the last minute to come and register. And to avoid all of that, we have extended our services in the various communities and established those centers there from September they had been established, one in Denerinoff, one in Souffre and one in Broseley. So we have and we have those ads running every day to let persons know where we located our numbers and what they need to register. The annual qualifying dates are the 15th of February in respect of the first half of the year and the 15th of July in respect of the second half of the year. For nationals to obtain the new national identification card, they must provide their bill certificate and a letter from the National Insurance Corporation, NIC, while non-nationals must provide their bill certificate, a letter from the NIC and the certificate of citizenship from the Ministry of Home Affairs. To effect a change of address, an individual must provide their identification card and utility bills for at least three months prior to the application for change as proof of address. A verification of the residence will be carried out by a verification team. To effect a change of name, the individual must provide the national ID, a letter from the NIC and the original document showing change of name that is their bill certificate, marriage certificate, deed Paul or Afi David. The Electoral Department explained provisions made to aid in replacing lost or stolen ID cards. We understand persons' bags are being stolen and that's what Electoral has implemented every year. That's our way of assisting. We actually wavered the fee of the 100 dollars during International Democracy Month, which is September, and it has become a pattern because solutions are actually looking forward. And last year, because we were coming into this election year, we had extended it to at least three months because you find a lot of persons are coming in to say the misplaced bags, the etc. But you also have persons that is 70 years and over, which is, they can't be exempted, the chief elections officer have that kind of power to exempt them. You have persons now coming with the government cards, they are unable to work, they have disabilities. Once you can give us the proof, you are exempted if your card is stolen. Yeah, and also police report to the exemptee as well from paying the fees. Once registered, an individual is placed on the voter's list. The registration remains in force unless there is a valid cause for cancellation, such as death or migration, and the prospective registrant must apply in person to the registration officers if the registration is to be effected. No person can apply for registration on behalf of another person. It also provides for the issue of an identification card to the registrant when the registration is effected. From the Government Information Service, I am Janelle Norville.