Morobe’s Election Manager, Simon Soheke, believes the best option to avoid the chronic electoral roll issue would be to fund the Electoral Commission as soon as a new government is formed.
Soheke further pointed out that the electoral roll has always been an issue.
“The roll has never been a perfect roll since elections,” he stated. “But we must try, as much as possible, to ensure that we come up with a credible roll.
“I’m appealing, maybe gavman kam insait lo disla taim, give us money after elections so that we can update the roll, and not only after 1 year or six months before elections.”
The Electoral Commission is placed in a precarious position when funding is made available a few months before elections, giving them less time to prepare.
Meantime, the Morobe Electoral Commission office had requested for K3 million to update the electoral roll, but was only given K1 million.
“That is why we still have our outstanding payments for those who enrolled but I’m happy to announce that the money has already been diverted to our account so we should be ok now.”
Soheke said volunteers who helped with the roll update should receive their outstanding payments by next week.