East New Britain Province will have five days of voting when polling commences tomorrow, July 4.
Provincial Returning Officer, Joab Voivoi said when the campaign period concluded on Friday July 1, respective returning officers with assistant returning officers have been busy preparing their teams for the first day of polling tomorrow.
“Hopefully every polling team should finish polling on Friday July 8 according to their polling schedules,” he said.
ENB has 135 polling teams that have been trained and ready to be dispatched to the 526 polling venues. The province has a total of 18 LLGs and 380 wards.
There are more than 174, 000 eligible voters in the province. As per the preliminary rolls, Kokopo registered more than 49,000, Rabaul with 23,000, Pomio more than 33,000 and Gazelle with 67,000.
Mr Voivoi said electoral ward rolls have been finalized and are ready in time for the start of polling
This weekend, candidates with their scrutineers were at respective police stations in the four districts of Kokopo, Rabaul, Gazelle and Pomio checking and witnessing ballot boxes, inner and outer seals and the transportation of ballot boxes to the remote areas.
Meantime, police in the province launched election operations on Wednesday July 28. The following day, security forces were deployed to Pomio district.
Police Commissioner, David Manning while in the province also launched on Friday a police boat for election operations.