The Electoral Commissioner, Tuiafelolo John Stanley, blamed the Electoral Officers they have hired for the errors that have been revealed after the general election last Friday.

Tuiafelolo, when asked about the changes to a Safata 2 polling booth, which is Tafitoala EFKS, said that it was the fault of the Electoral Officer who was on duty at that polling booth.

"Those changes will be made once the recount is done for Safata 2," Tuiafelolo said.

He explained that the error was that the information given by the EO in charge of the Tafitoala polling booth was different from the results given to the Electoral Commissioner employees at the operation centre, and that's why the results that were up on Friday for Safata 2 were changed and erased on the boards awaiting the official count on Monday.

"I don't know if the EOs did it on purpose or if they are stupid," he said.

Tuiafelolo said this is a big concern for him and admitted that this is what would happen if none of the staff of OEC went out to work at the polling booths.

"For your information, not even a single employee of OEC was out at the polling booths; they were all stationed here to work at the operation centre," he said.

Tuiafelolo said this is something they will look into in the long run to avoid these errors.

It was revealed that some of the EOs who were trained for weeks to work during the election pulled out last minute, and that the reserve part-time officials were hired to cover.

Tuiafelolo did not confirm if the reserve officials who covered up for the ones who pulled out last minute were trained, but he said these reserve officials do have an understanding of how to work at the different polling booths they were assigned to.

Up to 1,700 officials were assigned to work during pre-polling and the general election for more than 400 polling booths in Upolu and Savaii.