The Assistant Commissioner of Police for Northern Command, Peter Guinness, said problems arise when voters’ names are not in the electoral roll.
Voters get frustrated after standing in line for hours, just to find out that their right to vote has been deprived.
They then turn on polling officials and create disturbances, forcing the police to try to bring the situation under control.
“So many of them in Lae city, the majority of the population in Lae city, their names were not on the common roll,” he stated.
“Em displa em kosim bikpla problem. Em i no problem blo mipla. (This caused a lot of problems. It is not our problem.)
“I think it’s something that the Electoral Commissioner should take up with the national government; ol i mas lukluk lo adresim displa. (They must look at addressing this.)
“This is an ongoing problem since 2017, 2012 i kam…continuously we are doing that. Why is it happening like this?
“Ol mas stretim na mekim wok blo mipla isi. (They must fix this this and make our jobs easier.)
“Yumi nonap continue lo karim hevi blo gavman i stap.” (We cannot continue to carry the government’s burden.)
A number of polling venues in Lae had to be shut down due to confrontations.