2017 PNG National Elections

William Vaira’s story is of beating the cold of a new environment and surviving at least 8 hours of mountain climbing in order for a population of four villages to vote.

Hailogo, Enivilogo, Efogi 1 and Efogi 2 in the Efogi Ward of Koiari LLG are located along the Kokoda Track.

Vaira’s team – team 7, consisting of himself presiding officer and two reserved constables as security personnel, covered these villages.

The team left Port Moresby on last Tuesday July 27^th by air and commenced polling at Hailogo upon arrival.

Cherobin Vaiang, the Returning Officer for Angoram in the 2017 National Election said it is a huge challenge for his polling team because of the district's geography, compounded with no communication signals. 

Despite this Vaiang says that polling in the 5 LLG's are progressing well.

He adds however that many voters are complaining of their names not being the common roll.

Meanwhile the first three polling teams arrived on Thursday from Yuat LLG, with mo arrive in the coming days.

Angoram Distrct has 32 polling teams.

Majority of these are residents whose names are not in the common roll.

Bomana Police College polling station had long time residents fronting the area to reason with officials.

When Loop PNG arrived, they had come to an understanding where residents write their names and vote.

APO David Luan said the concern now was making sure the name-list checks with the gender tally and the papers in the ballot box.

With an hour remaining, there are still some of the 1150 papers remaining.

Polling closes at 6pm.

Currently there is a dispute over the number of ballot papers which students and staff say is insufficient.

Based in the 2017 updated electoral roll, 1, 350 ballot papers have been issued for polling at the Drill Hall at UPNG.

This has been disputed with students saying there should around 4000 names on the electoral roll.

Currently the students and staff are awaiting an audience with the NCD Election Manager, Alwyn Jimmy.

Meantime, polling officials at the venue say the election manager has been informed.

Provincial Election Manager Rossie Pandihau told Loop PNG that many things have yet to be sorted out before going to polls.

She said her team will be doing the check and balance on the ballot papers tomorrow and if they complete them on time, then they will go to polls.

"Otherwise if we couldn't finish the quality checks on time, then we will have to defer the polls to Saturday."

However, with a polling team of 184, Pandihau is confident to complete the polling on time on Saturday.