Certified voter list complete

The Bougainville Referendum Commission has completed the official ‘certified voter list’ to be used in polling for the Bougainville Referendum.

BRC Chairman Bertie Ahern said the numbers reflected an intensive, inclusive and extended three-phase enrolment process.

The Commission has completed packing ballot papers and materials for all 246 polling teams for 829 polling places.

A total of 206,731 voters have been certified for the Referendum Roll.

This comprises 194,016 Bougainville Residents; 98,565 of which are men.

12 thousand on the roll are non-resident Bougainvilleans; 5,844 are women. Overall, there are 101 thousand women and 105 thousand men.

Security, quality and accuracy of the referendum process is the focus of the BRC.

Chair Bertie Ahern is confident the numbers enrolled capture the intentions of the Bougainville Peace Agreement – to give the people of Bougainville a chance to finally have their say on the future of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville through an internationally recognised process.

The BRC is delighted with the gender balance on the roll, and the number of young and first-time voters who have gotten themselves enrolled to vote.

It believes it has gone above and beyond any electoral process in Papua New Guinea to comprehensively enrol eligible voters in Bougainville, elsewhere in Papua New Guinea, and for the first time, overseas in Australia and Solomon Islands.

Ahern said the final phase of enrolment in September, the public display and challenge of the preliminary roll had provided many people with one last chance to check the roll and add their name.

Over 4,000 Bougainvilleans used the public display period to help them correct errors, double entries or get themselves enrolled.

Since the close of the roll, BRC teams have been checking and double-checking claims for enrolment, updating the roll, data entry and further quality checking. The BRC will be providing a similar SMS roll check service for people to confirm where they are enrolled – and can also check the polling schedule on the BRC website and with BRC local level officials.

The roll will also be displayed on the BRC website for viewing in the coming days. Ahern once again called on people to be active in the final three weeks to be informed voters.

Author: 
Press release