The Electoral Commissioner, Simon Sinai says the Government is partly to be blamed for the late update of the Electoral Roll.
In a press conference this afternoon, Sinai said, “the PNGEC was prepared to implement the roll update since 2021, however adequate and timely funding to implement the roll update was delayed”.
Commissioner Sinai made these remarks, after concerns widely raised throughout the country over the names of eligible voters not updated on the Electoral Roll during polling.
He said the funding was only delayed until January 2022, where the EC rushed to complete the roll before the issue of writs.
“The roll update for the elections was conducted with barely three months before the issue of writs in May 2022, the date when the roll closes to new enrolments.
“Regardless, the PNGEC updated and prepared the electoral roll with as many voters included in the limited time period”, he added.
The Electoral Commission used the 2019 Local-Level Government election roll as the baseline to update the 2022 Electoral roll.
“Approximately 695, 000 ne enrolments were added. About 57 percent were new enrolments of voters between the ages of 18-24 years old.
He said the total number of eligible voters for this election stands at 5.7 million.