Electoral office caught out by Transparency International

BY KEITH JACKSON

SIXTEEN OFFICIALS FROM TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL PNG have conducted a lightning check on the PNG Electoral Commission to see whether their names were on the roll for this year’s national elections.

All of them were disappointed: the Common Rolls for the National Capital District and Central Province had not been printed, so people could not check to see if their names were registered.

TIPNG’s action was in response to media publicity by the Electoral Commission to motivate Papua New Guineans to enrol for the elections.

Five directors and 11 employees of TIPNG went to the Electoral Commission office to check their names on the roll.

PNG Electoral Commissioner, Andrew Trawen, confirmed later that the roll was not yet printed but, according to a TIPNG statement, “he reassured [Transparency] chairman Lawrence Stephens that the NCD roll would be printed soon for people to ensure that they are enrolled.”

When the names of the 16 were finally checked, it turned out that only five were on the common roll, four needed to be amended and the other seven, first time voters, were not recorded.

The TIPNG statement went on to say: “With just three months to go before the national general elections, TIPNG encourages the voting population of the country to be responsible citizens and go to their nearest electoral office to ensure that their names are registered on the electoral roll.”

TIPNG also “called on [Papua New Guineans] to choose leaders who will be responsible with the powers bestowed upon them for the next five years by the people of Papua New Guinea.

“Wake up, people of PNG!” TIPNG chairman Stephens urged, “Your vote counts for the future of our nation.”

But surely the ‘wake up call’ needed to be firmly targeted at the Electoral Commission, which had mounted a PR campaign before it was ready to deal with voter enquiries.

Comments

[John Wali]

Firstly, it is a tough task, but the Electoral Commission had 5 years between elections to get its act together.

These guys really need to go "bush" and encourage every village elder etc to keep that "village book". There are Churches etc that are in the bush from which the Electoral Commission can make some headway.

I cannot believe they can't get the names of people in Port Moresby (which is in front of their noses)!

[Paul Oates]

It's a far cry from the old green Census books that were updated every year prior to 1975.

Is there no way those responsible can't be made to properly assemble the electoral rolls before the election? Who is the Minister responsible?

The Electoral Commissioner and staff must be held accountable by the appropriate Minister and if the work hasn't been done, dismiss those responsible and hire competent staff to do the job now. It's not rocket science, for crying out loud.

If the electoral rolls have to be correctly updated, now is the time to do so before there is a debacle of a contested election result.

[Phil Fitzpatrick]

“With just three months to go before the national general elections, TIPNG encourages the voting population of the country to be responsible citizens and go to their nearest electoral office to ensure that their names are registered on the electoral roll.”

I've just returned from a clutch of villages in the Owen Stanley Ranges in Oro. They are each two or three days hard walking away from anywhere.

They've got no idea they are required to enrol and even less idea about where their nearest electoral office is located. I presume it's at Popondetta.

They are just expecting a patrol to turn up sometime with a bunch of ballot boxes for them to vote.

I expect that the electoral officers will be amending rolls as they go and organising registrations on the hop.

It will make for a very interesting election when coupled with the political shenanigans already in progress.

There will be a lot of disgruntled electors I suspect and I wish all those dedicated electoral officers the best of luck for a very hard job to come.