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We had an interview with Chief Elections Officer Josephine Tamai this afternoon to discuss the come-down from all those months of buildup. She told us that her office and the government spent over a million dollars to prepare for the referendum, only to be told less than 48 hours before the appointed date, that it has been postponed. Here's that conversation:

Josephine Tamai - Chief Elections Officer
"What if? So, if we were going to have the referendum tomorrow, I would say from the Elections and Boundaries standpoint, we were fully prepared. This is a process that we started many many months ago. Anybody who works in elections will tell you that preparations an election for a referendum does not happen overnight."

"You all know that we had the re-registration exercise, as early as last, starting the 2nd of July, and it has been an ongoing process."

"For elections and boundaries, if we were to have a referendum tomorrow, it would be quite similar to what people are used to seeing during an election. Polls would have opened 7 a.m. sharp."

Reporter
"How many polls?"

Josephine Tamai
"344 polling stations across the country. All those polling stations would have been opened. We already had the appointments of public officers. We also had accommodations, transportation, all the logistics had already been in place in regards to us moving forward this process."

Reporter
"Tell us about the financial investments your office and the Government had to make to get this point where you would have been prepared for tomorrow."

Josephine Tamai
"Well, in terms of the referendum itself, we have already spent over a million dollars in terms of preparations for the referendum. That is basically only to - we had trainings. We had appointments. We had meetings, accommodation, transportation, preparation of the polling stations. All those things have already been incurred. I know that at some point, some of the cost we will still have to bear because it's not anywhere where you have accommodations, that people will take it for granted that well, I could have booked a room somewhere else, so they won't charge you. When the injunction was announced last week we communicated with those establishments to inform them that there was a possibility that we may not need to utilize these places, but to still hold them for us in that event. So, we're hoping that these establishments will work with us because at some point, when the referendum date is set, then we'll still need to use these places for accommodations."

Reporter
"What is the sense or the mood from the officers who work under you, given that you have this announcement at the very last minute all the work you all prepared for will not see any fruition on April 10th?"

Josephine Tamai
"Well, I know for most people and most of my staff, even the returning officers and the election clerks, they have indicated that they would have hoped that there would be a quick end to it. Because like I said, appointing public officers, those persons have had to be away from their normal duties, from a couple weeks ago, if not more. So, those persons have all that backlog that they need to go and prepare for. And again, when we do get the okay to proceed with a referendum on some future date, again we basically have to bring everybody together, put everything on pause again, and then proceed. But you also have some of the staff who I know people have been working extended hours since June of last year. And yesterday, when the announcement came, majority were saying, we wish we could have gotten over this. But despite that, I can say that we will continue to prepare. As Elections and Boundaries Department, we always have to prepare despite whatever it is."