Supervisor of Elections, Mohammed Saneem.

Supervisor of Elections, Mohammed Saneem says that a deed poll is not needed if anyone wishes to change the name on their birth certificate.

A deed poll is a legal document that proves a change of name.

There are claims that once amendments are made to the Electoral Registration of Voters Act, people who will want to amend the name on their birth certificate to match the one they will register to vote with, will have to pay at least $500.

Saneem has rubbished these claims

“You can simply do it by filling a form at the birth, death, and marriage registry. You don’t even need a lawyer for that, you can simply fill it out yourself, deposit it in the registry and your name is changed. So you don’t need $500, you don’t need lawyers on TikTok to tell you that, it’s simply a simple form you fill and lodged to the registry.”

Saneem also says for the meantime, the findings of the court that anyone can register to vote using their common name stands.

However, he says they will keep track of all these people and will contact them to amend their details once an amendment is done to the Electoral Registration of Voters Act.

This amendment seeks to only register people on the National Register of voters using the name that is on their birth certificate.