A total of 120,000 people have been registered and issued with a National Identity card.
PNG Civil and Identity Registry (CIR) Registrar General Dickson Kiragi has revealed.
He said out of the total, 84,000 are from NCD while the rest are from the other eight provinces which include Central, Northern, Gulf, Milne Bay, Southern Highlands (Mendi/Iablibu) and New Ireland.
He said the PNG CIR in partnership with Department of National Planning and Monitoring is a mammoth task and has never been done before in PNG until 2013 when they embarked on this reform.
He added that legislation had been reviewed, infrastructure to support this reform, systems development, changes in administrative procedures and others are completed and roll-out the program across the country.
Kiragi explained that the PNG NID card is a legal universal identity in the country that will supersede all forms of identity in the future, linking one person to one identity to eliminate identity theft and fraud in PNG.
He said in that context, the Electoral Commission is seen as an end user that will use the NID card and Population Register for citizen identity verification for their own purpose.
“Hence, this initiative does not replace nor undermine the PNGEC’s role in enrolling and conducting elections nor does it affect their vote register.”