national elections

More than 40 polling officials including Assistant Returning Officer and Returning Officer attended a brief training this morning to familiarise the officers before the start of polling on Monday.

Kerema Central ARO and electoral officer, Desmond Goka conducted the training. Each officials from all 10 LLGs will be sent to their respective polling sites by Monday.

Electoral Commissioner, Simon Sinai in an interview regarding polling schedules, explained the status of polling schedules for the Momase, NGI, and the Southern regions, with corrections made with the Highlands region then signed off on June 29th and June 30th for the three other regions.

He said police will be focusing on the polling areas and their response in attending to complaints will not be effective with all police logistics tied down to elections.
 
PPC Rubiang said police would respond only to serious cases when reported but not for minor cases, as family members, community leaders or ward councilors can resolve this. 
He said traveling to police stations might be costly so it is best to avoid getting into trouble. 
 

He said law and order in the province has been stabilised and the security forces are ready for polling as scheduled for July 4, next week Monday. 
PPC Bore said law and order in province has been managed to a level where he is confident that the election can be conducted with “minimum disturbance”.
 
PPC Bore said the security personnel deployed in the province would closely monitor and cover the 275 polling areas.
 

The Joint Security Task Forces who are part of the operations include personnel from the Royal PNG Constabulary, the PNG Defence Force and the PNG Correctional Service.

Police Commissioner, David Manning inspected the parade formation that consisted of three companies. That included one company each from the RPNGC, PNGDF and PNGCS.

Present also at the occasion was PNG Defence Force Commander Major General Mark Goina, and Deputy Police Commissioner, Anton Billie. 

They are free to exercise their constitutional right during the polling period from July 4^th to 22^nd, according to the election schedule released by the Electoral Commission.

The Department of Personnel Management has released Circular Instruction No.8, dated 4th May, regarding the matter.

DPM Secretary, Taies Sansan said this is for public servants and employees to leave work early to visit their nearest polling booth.

Morobe Election Manager, Simon Soheke, said the Morobe Electoral Commission is conducting a stock take to make sure the right quantity is in stock. 

“Today, Thursday, we’re receiving other materials like ballot boxes and stationery and other non-sensitive material,” he outlined. “Once we get them, we’ll sort them out according to each district and LLG.

“Mipla bai givim go long ol respective returning officers and assistant returning officers.”

After completing a three-day election preparation workshop in Port Moresby this week, Mr. Malaifeope has given assurance that his team is set for July 4.

“We had a three-day election preparation workshop basically to get ourselves in order to check if we have everything on hand and ready for the polling in a week's time."

He said there are 174 polling teams geared up to run the polling throughout the province. Mr. Malaifeope plans to run the polling for five days and complete the process by the 9th or 10th of July.

The report stated that the 2017 elections did not improve on the 2012 elections. The 2017 observations made in all four regions and in National Capital District (NCD) with a mix of urban, rural, open and provincial electorates observed.

These include in 69 of 111 electorates with detailed study of 44 electorates (33 open and 11 provincial) and detailed observations at 945 of the 10,825 polling stations nationwide.

According to the report, “the 2017 elections witnessed a marked deterioration in the overarching election environment.

When launching the Electoral Roll, the PNGEC also released the 2022 national election program. The dates for the elections are as follows:

Issue of writs – April 28

Close of Nominations – May 5^th

Polling – June 25^th to July 8^th

Return of Writs – July 29^th

PNGEC's focus is to strengthen coordination between the provincial administration and key stakeholders for efficient and successful 2021 electoral roll update and the 2022 national election. However, funding is yet to be made available for the operations.