The Electoral Commission says there is no changes to dates and polling is set for next Monday, July 4th all throughout the country.
Electoral Commissioner, Simon Sinai in an interview regarding polling schedules, explained the status of polling schedules for the Momase, NGI, and the Southern regions, with corrections made with the Highlands region then signed off on June 29th and June 30th for the three other regions.
“I want all polling to be done from the 4th-11, for a week. I really do not like to see polling going beyond that or being extended. For a fact that we need time to do the counting. Counting takes a lot of time and this is when a lot of things can happen, a lot of interest involved as well,” Mr. Sinai said.
He said when the polling is done, it is not counting alone it is also the polling situation sometimes faces natural weather patterns, changes, and the polling that has to be done in a very remote part of PNG. Stating that it’s very hard to extract them when already sent to the poll.”
“Yes they are done but to extract them back on the same day is quite difficult all the time. That is why we will notice that polling was supposed to have happened on the 9th but I moved it back to the 2nd because we want to allow policemen to have some breathing space to re-mobile, especially up in the highlands, and with polling starting on the 4th in Hela then they have to re-mobile again, complete the polling, extract the officials and then go to the next area.”
“All of these things have to be considered that’s why on the 29th of June we confirmed the polling schedules, with the latest polling that will occur is on the 15th of July in the Eastern Highlands, and 8 polling teams in Madang. Other than that, we are not expecting any polling to go beyond the 15th of July, but most of the polling teams will be completed by the 11th of July.”
The question of the schedule’s accessibility was mentioned and on where citizens need to know of where to go to their nearest polling locations.
Sinai said for the general public to see the schedules they will need to visit the Provincial Electoral office and district RO.