The integrity of the 2017 National Election will not be put into question following the resignation of the three members of the Election Advisory Committee on Sunday.
Electoral Commissioner Patilias Gamato is confident to deliver a successful election.
He said the election has proceeded smoothly despite complaints by many eligible voters missing out on voting because of no names on the updated Electoral Roll.
Gamato said the three men committee resignation is not formal yet.
“I can only say here that the appropriate appointment authority is the Head of State who is the Governor General of Papua New Guinea.
“Our correspondences with the Office of the Governor General today confirmed that the Governor General did not receive any official advice in terms of letters of resignation from two (2) members of the Election Advisory Committee, namely, Professor Luluaki and Richard Kassman.
“Ombudsman Richard Pagan has yet to communicate to with me and my office on his stance.”
Gamato said relevant support was given to the committee to monitor the elections.
“The committee made some requests, and we tried to be helpful. But the role of the EAC was to give advice and recommendations, not to judge the election. It’s an Advisory Committee.
“I would add that commission officials are hard pressed during this election period and they did receive quite a number of requests from the EAC.”
EAC members in a media conference on Sunday said their decision was to protect the integrity of the committee.
The EAC statement read that PNGEC failed to provide reports of ballot distribution and other information concerning the operation of the election.
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