Electoral roll

“I think what has been happening here has also been happening in other parts of the district and also the country. As we speak Porebada polling has been stopped for whatever reason but the scrutineers there and also here have been disgruntled. They’re not very pleased that the voter listing does not reflect names of everybody who live in the community. So a lot of people are finding themselves excluded or prevented from exercising their constitutional right to vote,” he said.

Presiding officer for Kerema Urban, Jerry Hape suspended polling for wards 3, 4 and 5 today and told the voters to go check out their names at the Electoral Office.

Provincial Electoral Manager, Poevare Tore made an announcement to the Kerema public this morning to check the Electoral Roll before they argue with the polling team. 

Tore said, “We had officers sent around to register your household four months ago and it shouldn't be a problem to raise during the polling period.”

This process should be completed earlier in advance of the election and finalised prior to the cut-off upon the issue of the writs.

“Security measures should be put in place to prevent further changes to the roll after the cut-off point, and political parties and candidates should receive copies of the final electoral roll in advance of the polling period,” it stated.

The COG, after the 2017 elections, recommended that the PNGEC consider providing for continuous voter registration, including online registration.

However, PNG’s elections have been plagued with an inaccurate electoral roll. Ever since 1987, the number of registered voters on the roll has exceeded the estimated voting population aged 18 years and over.

According to Maholopa Laveil, an Economics Lecturer at the School of Business and Public Policy, University of Papua New Guinea, the electoral roll has been inflated across PNG during the country’s nine election terms.

This was part of its ongoing Building Elections Integrity through Partnership Project (BEIP), funded under the PNG-Australia Partnership for Development.

During the awareness meetings with public officials, police, youth and churches, and citizens, serious concerns regarding the Electoral Roll Update were expressed. Apparently, the Electoral Roll Update exercise has not commenced and is lacking coordination through the Central Provincial Election Steering Committee.

This week the PNG Electoral Commission is conducting a photo roll display and verification for the Kupiano Town ward, this is a follow up on the biometric voter registration field test conducted last year during the LLG by-election.

The roll update program will be used to capture existing and new voter information, fingerprints and photo.

Acting PNG Electoral Commissioner, Simon Sinai says several other roll improvements and voter registration projects have been conducted in other provinces.

This will set a baseline for the 2021 National Enrolment Strategy.

The Bougainville Electoral Commissioner, George Manu, said the roll display and registration of eligible voters has already been completed in most of the 33 constituencies in the region.  

“As of today, most of the assistant returning officers have already returned their field work data to either our head office in Buka or through our regional offices in Arawa and Buin towns.”  

The roll display and registration of new eligible voters was done by the ward recorders of respective ward assemblies in Bougainville.   

National Alliance Party parliamentary leader, Patrick Pruaitch, said it was inexcusable that thousands of Papua New Guineans have been unable to exercise their democratic right because the Electoral Commission had failed in its primary task of updating the Electoral Roll.

“Many of us have theories about these turn of events with legitimate voters taken off the Roll and other electorates padded in inexplicable ways,” Pruaitch says.

He also said returning officers have the legal authority to declare winning candidates.

The region consists of four districts, Arawa, Panguna, Wakunai and Kieta, and the delay has affected over 40 000 eligible voters.

CBR Returning Officer Denise Palipal confirmed reports received from the voters that many of the names are not on the electoral roll.

Palipal and CBR police commander Spencer Aila urged all 49 polling teams not to carry out polling until the preliminary roll is printed and distributed to them.

Palipal confirmed that they will be using the preliminary roll from the 2012 elections.

He said in areas where the bulk of voters do not find their names on the Electoral Roll, the preliminary roll can be used by election officials.

“What I’ve decided is that they can go back and use the preliminary roll,” says the commissioner.

Commissioner Gamato explained that the preliminary roll is the first or draft roll that they did when the enrolment forms came in and data was entered. After the objection, the outcome is the final roll.