Election assistant returning officers accused of tampering

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Polling station at Saruan village at Umi atzera LLG, Markham. Villagers sitting around the polling station waiting for their names to be called out by a hailer to go cast their vote. – Nationalpic by MALIKAI BALANDU

Election assistant returning officers accused of tampering

PORT MORESBY: Two assistant election returning officers (AROs) in Morobe’s Finschhafen are under investigations after allegations of ballot box tampering were laid against them, Commander Supt Jabob Singura says.

“Hube and Kote local level government AROs are being investigated. Investigators from the provincial police headquarters are on the ground in Gagidu station to probe the allegations against the AROs,” he added.

PNG Cyber Monitor reproduces below the news break and a few General Election 2022 (GE22) news updates reported by The National:

AROs accused of tampering

July 8, 2022The NationalMain Stories

TWO assistant returning officers (AROs) in Finschhafen, Morobe are under investigation after allegations of ballot box tampering were laid against them, police say.
Morobe police commander Supt Jacob Singura said Hube and Kote local level government (LLG) AROs were being investigated.
“Investigators from the provincial police headquarters are on the ground at Gagidu station to investigate the allegations against the AROs,” he said.
Singura said both men would be referred to the Electoral Commission after the investigation.
He said police from Lae headquarters met with Finschhafen police, district returning officer (RO), all Finschhafen Open candidates, supporters and other security personnel in Gagidu yesterday to discuss the matter.
The parties agreed that all ballot boxes dispatched out to LLGs for polling without security escorts would be brought back to Gagidu to be checked before being resent to the polling sites.
Singura said there had been an allegation that the ballot boxes dispatched to LLGs without a security escort earlier may have been tampered with.
“That is why a thorough check will be conducted on them to ensure the boxes were not tampered with before being dispatched on Saturday (tomorrow).”


Markham counting to start on Monday

COUNTING of ballots for Markham’s General Election 2022 (GE22) will be held in Markham Valley Secondary School, the same venue as in previous GEs, district Returning Officer Willie Pilailo says.
“We will use two classrooms and also partition up the mess for the electoral counting process for the open and regional seats,” he said.
“The tally boards and a partition wall to split the mess area is under construction and should be complete by today.”
Pilailo said the 10 teams conducting the polling in Markham should all bring in their ballot boxes today and that seven teams were still conducting polling.
He said the weekend (Saturday and Sunday) would be given to the presiding officers to come and prepare their returns and they would start the counting on Monday.
“Everything is on schedule with polling ending at 6pm tomorrow (today),” he said.
Pilailo said the counting officials list would be out tomorrow so officials know and preparations could be carried out prior to the electoral count.
“The counting should probably take one week for Markham district and by Friday or Saturday next week, we should (be able to) declare the winners,” he added.
Markham is one of 11 seats in Morobe.
A total of 37 candidates are contesting for the open seat and 37 others are contesting for the Morobe provincial seat.
Morobe’s polling is from July 4 (Monday) to Friday (today).
It has 32 local level governments comprising 565 wards with 1,031 polling stations featuring 1,095 polling booths.


District electoral official says polling ‘progressing well’

Polling station at Saruan village at Umi atzera LLG, Markham. Villagers sitting around the polling station waiting for their names to be called out by a hailer to go cast their vote. – Nationalpic by MALIKAI BALANDU

POLLING in Morobe’s Markham which kicked off on Monday is progressing peacefully, except in remote Tapakainantu in Onga Waffa, Returning Officer Willie Pilailo says.
“Our team went up to Tapakainantu, a place bordering Markham and Eastern Highlands on Monday,” he said.
“As they were preparing for polling, the people there threatened to cut the ballot boxes and destroy the polling materials,” he added.
Pilailo said the people claimed they were frustrated because there were no tangible services in the past years.
“The threat forced our polling team to retreat,” he said.
“They went there on Sunday and were locked up till Tuesday.
“The place is very remote, about a day’s walk. Pilailo cancelled polling in the area because of the distance and the security risk.
However, he said since polling started on Monday, many parts of Markham were peaceful and he urged the people, candidates and their supporters to continue with their “good behavior”.
“When it comes to the counting, let us maintain peace until we declare our new Member of Parliament,” he said.
“Come and vote for your leader.
“It is time for you to choose a leader and that is your responsibility to the country.”
Pilailo said despite minor security issues, he was glad policemen and soldiers were on the ground to help control the crowd at polling stations and transport ballot boxes.


Sir Ignatius Kilage Stadium prepped for counting

By EHEYUC SESERU
MOROBE election officials are preparing the Sir Ignatius Kilage Stadium’s indoor complex for Lae Open counting to start tomorrow.
Returning Officer Kusak Meluk said his team anticipated starting the count this morning given all preparations and venue set-up had been completed yesterday.
“We completed one-day polling on Monday, and gave Tuesday to presiding officers to furnish their returns.”
Meluk said they were supposed to prepare the venue on Wednesday and start counting yesterday but were hindered by candidates’ scrutineers.
“We were supposed to prepare the venue on Wednesday, scrutineers stopped our officials unnecessarily and questioned them delaying our work,” he said.
Meluk said officials started preparing the indoor complex at 11.30 am and stopped at six in the evening.
“We want to continue preparing venue during evening but scrutineers didn’t want,” he said.
“So we’ll continue venue preparation today and will start counting tomorrow morning (today).
“If we were allowed to work in the night, we would’ve get things done and counting underway.
“This was not done so we might count tomorrow or Sunday.
“But we’re targeting counting to start on Saturday (tomorrow).”
Meluk said the faulty standby generator at the stadium was fixed yesterday and refueled in case of power outages.
He said scrutineers needed to listen to their candidates about their roles.
“If candidates want us to count, they must talk to their scrutineers to give us space and allow us to work,” he said.
“The more they delay us with pressure, we will delay counting.
“We’re very mindful about the date of the return of writs on July 29, so we must start counting now to finish on time.
“Don’t stop and question us unnecessarily, that drags time.
“We were the first district in county to compete our polling, but might be the last to finish counting because of these unnecessary holdups.”

Distribution hindered

July 8, 2022The NationalMain Stories

By GLORIA BAUAI in Madang
DISTRIBUTION and dispatching of electoral officials, security personnel and election materials into the mountainous regions of Madang has been challenging, an officials says.
Fabian Meker, the assistant returning officer (ARO) for Gama local level government (LLG) said 12 of the 14 wards were only accessible by air.
He said it was impossible to deliver the polling process by foot as this would take weeks to complete the exercise well past the scheduled return of writs.
Polling was scheduled to start on July 4, 2022, however, when The National visited Walium station on Wednesday, teams were still on ground, sorting out election materials.
Meker said teams underwent training on Tuesday night that ended at midnight and spent Wednesday sorting out materials for airlifting.
He said three of his eight teams and materials were already transferred into the LLG as of yesterday.
“We need to start all polling in the LLG at the same time so this means we have to wait until next week when all 56 officials and 10,250 ballot papers are on ground,” he said.
Bundi ARO Joe Yama said his electorate could be accessed by both land and air transport, however the vehicles hired were all run-down and this would also delay delivery of materials into each ward.
He called for better logistical support for his 84-polling officials and 13,050 ballot papers given the short time frame for the return of writs which was on July 29.
He said because the helicopter would do only one run for insertion and extraction in Usino, their biggest need was for vehicles to ensure uniformity in the delivery of polling in their LLG.
“We are already behind schedule and there are also other existing issues on ground.”


Media commended for role in election

By LULU MARK
THE media has a huge role to play in the delivery of a free and fair election and journalists should continue to report without fear or favour, a candidate says.
Tania Bale, who worked for 35 years in the broadcast media and who is running for the Moresby North-East seat, said the role of the media as the fourth estate was critical in the General Election 2022 (GE22).
Bale made the remarks at a press conference yesterday where other National Capital District (NCD) candidates in Anna Kavana Bais (Moresby North-West), Michelle Hau’ofa (Moresby South) and Sylvia Pascoe (regional) raised their concern around transparency of polling and counting.
She said the media was doing a good job covering the elections so far but polling and counting were still there to cover.
She said candidates and people were looking to the media to ensure the concerned authorities were held accountable.
“We need you (journalists),” she said.
“You are part of this fight for democracy.
“You are the people that do the checks and balances.
“You are the truth tellers.”


Open communication vital, says officer

Final check … Pictured are polling officials for wards along the Ramu Highway in Madang checking polling materials on Wednesday. Polling for Ramu began yesterday. – Nationalpic By GLORIA BAUAI

POLLING teams heading into Madang’s Gama local level government (LLG) will first need to clarify the issue of the non-updated common roll for eligible voters.
Presiding officer Galison Kokong said open communication would be vital to avoid disputes and ensuring the safety of his team.
“We are expecting issues with the common roll and the inconvenience this will cause but we must clarify first that this is beyond our control,” he said.
“All officials involved are also locals so we should be good in this regard.”
But according to Gama assistant returning officer Fabian Meker, there were over 10,000 eligible voters while ballot papers to be distributed across 14 wards as per the Electoral Commission record was 10,250.
Estimated ballot papers for Bundi LLG is 28,650, however ARO Joe Yama said the eligible voting population had increased since the last common roll and ward registration update.
“Ballot papers should have a 15 per cent increase for all ward areas but there is less,” he said.
“Our most populated places are the Kurumbukari mine site, Snowpass, Yandera and I’m sure we’ll fall short of ballot papers.”
He said Kurumbukari mine site with five sites set up would have one-day polling while other polling sites would undergo three to four-day of polling.
“Every five years, the population grows, candidates use different strategies and voters also use their own strategies to choose so we have to be smart,” he said.
Usino ARO Sokya Philkasim noted a similar situation with the ballot paper supply in his LLG but said he still expected a generally good election process in the end.

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