The preliminary electoral voter roll for all 22 provinces has been completed last week.
Electoral Commissioner Patilias Gamato said he is quite pleased with the tremendous effort put in by temporary electoral workers in updating the roll.
He said the preliminary roll will be used for nominations when the 2017 election writs are open on April 20.
“What this means is that the process of updating the 2017 roll (will) continue until all verification is completed right across the country,” he said.
Currently, the preliminary roll is displayed publicly in all electorates for voter verification and objection.
The Electoral Commissioner said once verification is completed, preliminary rolls for all the 22 provinces will be submitted to the PNGEC headquarters in Port Moresby to be finalised, printed and ready for polling on June 24.
“People are a bit confused about what’s happening. We are only updating the 2012 roll so if a voter has voted in the 2012 election, his or her name is still on the roll,” Gamato clarified.
The roll update exercise started towards the end of July 2016 due to the delay in funding to PNGEC by the National Government.
“Had we started earlier, we would have completed the roll update exercise by December 2016 or January and February this year,” Gamato said.
“Nevertheless, we have progressed and data entry activities in all the 22 provinces have been completed.
“I hope that by the middle of May we (PNGEC) should finalise and print the final roll for the 2017 election.”
(File picture)