The Electoral Commission is conducting the voter enrolment exercise throughout the country to update the ward electoral roll before the 2024 Local Level Government Election.
Section 126 of the Constitution mandates the PNG Electoral Commission the authority to manage and conduct the National and Local Level Government elections, and Non – Parliamentary elections under the organic law and regulations of elections.
One of its primary responsibilities is to prepare and update the electoral roll to make sure eligible electors names are registered so they can exercise their democratic right to vote for the leader of their own choice during elections.
Despite the limited funding and resources on hand, almost all Provinces have started some enrolment activities at a slow pace through partnerships with key stakeholders.
These activities include Consultation with key stakeholders in their respective provinces, conducting an enrolment awareness campaign, and the second-tier enrolment training for the roll update exercises.
The Voter enrolment exercise will have three (3) phases. The first phase will commence with consultation and display of the electoral roll. This is where the 2022 electoral roll will be displayed at the ward level for the people to inspect and consult with the enrolment team. The 2022 electoral roll will be used as the working roll for the roll update and enrolment exercises.
The second phase is the actual voter enrolment where the ward enrolment agents will be deployed to clans, locations, and sections to do the enrolment by issuing Form 11 (Claim for Enrolment forms) to electors based upon the voter data collected during the first phase of the voter enrolment program.
All eligible electors who are not on the roll; those who are 18 years of age and above and teenagers who are 17 years of age and will turn 18 before the issue of writs, will also enroll their names.
The third phase is the roll display and objection period. This is where the Preliminary roll will be displayed at the wards for the public to verify and object to the names of voters on the roll before printing the final electoral roll for the 2024 LLG election.
The Electoral roll update has always been an issue and is one of the most challenging phases in the electoral process, thus the Commission is giving its utmost effort to improve by taking into consideration recommendations from Election Observers and Special Parliamentary Committee on Election reports to introduce new technology and roll management strategies in our programs.
One of those new approaches Electoral Commission is embarking on when conducting voter enrolment exercises is to arrange the Ward roll into clans and sections, basically to improve the accuracy and integrity of the roll and to identify legitimate voters based upon their enrolment eligibility.
The focus is to give ownership and responsibilities of the Ward electoral roll back to the communities to minimize voter roll issues.
Electoral Commissioner Simon Sinai says the people need to understand that the electoral roll belongs to their communities. The Electoral Commission is just the custodian of their electoral or ward roll. The Commission wants the communities to take ownership of their roll. By taking ownership meaning that the communities, their leaders, and the eligible voters from that particular ward or clan have to provide honest and accurate information to the enrolment agents during the enrolment exercise.
It is the responsibility of the community leaders and clan leaders to come forward and advice officers during the enrolment programs on the status of the eligibility of the people and that includes; those people who no longer exist in their communities, electors who are not eligible to enroll or not genuine on the roll and the correct number of eligible electors on the roll.
Therefore, PNG Electoral Commission appeals to all clan leaders, community leaders, women, youths at the wards to support the work of the Electoral Commission in conducting voter enrolment exercise before the polling for the 2024 Local Level Government election commences.
Due to limited funding and resources, PNGEC is also genuinely appealing to each Provincial Administration office through the Provincial Election Advisory Committee to establish stakeholders’ partnerships with their Provincial Electoral offices to share costs and resources.