People holding two or more National ID cards are creating challenges for election officials ahead of the upcoming Port Vila City Council election.

Electoral Commission Chairman Edward Kaltamat says the Electoral Office has discovered several cases of people holding between two and three ID cards during the voter inspection period.

“Some people still have two ID cards. I do not know how it happened, but it sometimes makes our work difficult. We only have two weeks for inspection before this election, and we have found many people with two or three ID cards.”

Senior Registrar for Civil Registration and Identity Management, Jack Edwards, says while the National ID is an essential service, there are restrictions in place during the election period.

He said people can still apply to replace an ID card that has been damaged, lost or expired, provided their information, including their residence, remains unchanged.

However, changes to a person’s residential information are currently restricted while the Electoral Office is carrying out its inspection process.

Edwards said holding multiple National ID cards is not permitted.

“The duplication of ID cards is real. One person can have two or three National ID cards, but the important thing is which one has been activated. Only the activated ID card will appear on the relevant list. If your ID card is not activated, it will not appear. The law states that one person should only have one ID card containing their updated information.”

He said the active ID card is the one recognised in the official system.

In July alone, Civil Registration and Identity Management printed 2,120 National ID cards.