Electoral Commission has a huge task to update common roll before July LLG Elections
PNG Electoral Commission is rushing against time to update the common roll in-time for the 2024 Local Level Government [LLG] elections, scheduled in July.
Electoral Commissioner Simon Sinai said “despite the limited funding and resources on hand, almost all provinces have started some enrolment activities at a slow pace through partnership with key stakeholders.
“These activities include consultation with key stakeholders at their respective provinces, conduct enrolment awareness campaign, and the second tier enrolment training for the roll update exercises.”
The Issue of Writs and nomination opens for LLG elections on 25th July.
Mr Sinai said the voter enrolment exercise will be done in three phases.
“The first phase will commence with consultation and display of the [2022] electoral roll at the ward level for the people [eligible voters] to inspect and consult with the enrolment team.
“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 the Form 11 (Claim for Enrolment forms) to electors based upon the voter data collected during the first phase of the voter enrolment program.
“The third phase is the roll display and objection period. This is where the preliminary roll will be displayed at the wards for public to verify and object names of voters on the roll before printing the final electoral roll for 2024 LLG election.”
Elections in Papua New Guinea common for missing names of eligible voters on the common roll.
The electoral commissioner admits “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 approach Electoral Commission is embarking on when conducting voter enrolment exercise 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 in order to minimize voter roll issues.”