Bougainville referendum voting held in 20 provinces of Papua New Guinea has been completed.
All the ballot boxes are expected to be secured in Port Moresby this Thursday (Dec 5) for dispatching to Buka for inclusion and counting.
Electoral Commissioner Patilias Gamato expressed satisfaction that referendum voting in PNG was a success and indeed, very peacefully conducted in the 20 voting districts.
There were minor hiccups when some Bougainvilleans were unable to locate their names on the referendum roll. However, Gamato said the issue was resolved by using provisional voting, which is allowed by the Bougainville Referendum Commission (BRC).
“As PNG Electoral Commissioner and an ex-officio member of BRC, I would like to assure Bougainvilleans in the 20 provinces who cast their historical votes that your votes are now safe and secure and will be included for counting.
“Teams tasked to conduct polling in PNG have followed due voting processes, procedures and guidelines set out by the Bougainville Referendum Commission in conducting polling.”
Gamato gave further assurance that all the ballot boxes received from the 20 provinces, Australia and Solomon Islands have gone through quality checks before they were safely locked away in a container.
Meanwhile, there were a total of 33 ballot boxes sent out for polling outside of Bougainville which included PNG, Australia and Solomon Islands.
Thirty ballot boxes were sent to PNG for the 20 voting district, one ballot box each for Australia and Solomon Islands and one ballot box for postal votes.
In PNG, a total of 24 teams and their ballot boxes, including election materials, have returned to Port Moresby while six more teams, all from the Highlands provinces, will return their ballot boxes by Thursday this week due to flight delays and flight cancelations.
Ballot boxes from the three regions – Southern, Momase, New Guinea Islands – as well as Australia and Solomon Islands, have already arrived in Port Moresby and are secured in a container ready for dispatching to Buka.
For the Highlands Region, ballot boxes for Eastern Highlands, Hela and Enga provinces arrived in Port Moresby on Tuesday.
Due to the flight cancelation in Mt. Hagen yesterday, ballot boxes for Western Highlands, Jiwaka and Chimbu are expected arrive in Port Moresby before Thursday.
(Referendum officials and observers at the PNG Consulate in Cairns, Australia)