Majority in Gazelle denied voting rights
News that matter in Papua New Guinea
Counting officials for the Rabaul Open seat doing quality checks for the first count. – Picture supplied
Majority in Gazelle
denied voting rights
PORT MORESBY: The number of Papua New Guineans denied
their voting rights in East New Britain’s Gazelle is higher than those who managed
to cast their ballots, Election Returning Officer John Watovo says.
“Polling has not been
smooth in almost all the villages but election officials still managed to
complete the week-long polling on time,” he added.
“The data we collated
showed the majority were denied their constitutional rights to vote (because
their names were not in the Common Roll),” he said.
PNG Cyber Monitor reproduces below the shocking revelation by the RO in Gazelle and a few General Election 2022 news updates as published by The National:
Majority miss out on
voting
July 13, 2022The NationalMain Stories
THE number of Papua
New Guineans denied their voting rights in East New Britain’s Gazelle is higher
than those who managed to cast their ballots, Election Returning Officer John
Wartovo says.
“Polling has not been smooth in almost all villages but election officials
still managed to complete week-long polling on time,” he said.
“The data we collated showed the majority were denied their constitutional
rights to vote (because their names were not in the roll).”
However, Wartovo said counting of ballots would proceed today, as scheduled by
the Electoral Commission (EC), despite the roll issue.
“The roll issue is beyond our control. We cannot do much about it because we
have done our part sending all the names to Port Moresby for them to update,”
he said.
“It is now up to the EC resolve the roll issue. We are just custodians, so we
will proceed with the counting according to what that has already been
scheduled.”
Wartovo, when asked if they had any plans to improve and avoid such issues in
the next general election, said the EC needed to give election officials and
workers the power with funding support that would help updating the printed
common roll at the provincial level.
“Updating the common roll involves a lot of process,” he said.
“Why can they (EC) give us the green light to update the common roll. I believe
this will cut short the process, instead of us sending all the data entry to
Port Moresby.
“For 2027, we plan to ask the EC to give us the power to update the common roll
in the province.
“However, despite all the issues that we have encountered during polling, we
are ready for the counting.”
Counting for seats in East New Britain begins
Counting officials for
the Rabaul Open seat doing quality checks for the first count. – Picture
supplied
COUNTING for East New
Britain’s Kokopo, Rabaul and Pomio Open seats and regional seat, began
yesterday.
Counting for Kokopo started at 11am and Returning Officer Darius Kunai had
suspended the counting on Monday afternoon.
According to Kunai, 27 ballot boxes were returned from the four local level
governments of Kokopo-Vunamami Urban (9), Bitapaka (8), Raluana (5) and Duke of
York (5).
Provincial election manager Joap Voivoi confirmed that there were 140 ballot
boxes for the regional seat. Counting started with the boxes from the Central
Gazelle LLG.
He said three groups of counting officials were sorting the ballot papers of
the 23 candidates contesting the regional seat.
Counting for the Gazelle Open is expected to start today.
Counting venues are: Kokopo – Vunapope Diocesan Hall; Rabaul – Malaguna
Technical Secondary School; Gazelle – Gaulim Teachers College Hall; Pomio –
West Mamusi council chamber, Palmalmal; Regional – Kokopo Technical Secondary
School Hall.
Meanwhile, deputy provincial administrator in-charge of socio-economic services
Levi Mano urged the counting officials to be fair and honest.
Cheating, abuse of rules common during
elections, says Barker
CHEATING and the abuse of rules are common
during PNG general elections, says Institute of National Affairs (INA)
executive director Paul Barker.
Barker said it had resulted in some individuals voting multiple times, moving
on to another polling station or even constituency to cast votes for their
clansman or presumably for some reward.
He said some used the names of others on the list, denying them a chance to
cast their own vote.
“Some scrutineers or supporters illegally assist (especially) female voters to
cast their votes,” he said.
“And we’ve already seen cases of ballot boxes having been tampered with before
votes have been cast, plus an array of other abuses.
“This behaviour is criminal and leads to potential failed election in that seat
or, at least, severe doubt over the validity of the electoral outcome.”
He said also common were reports of large sums of money or goods being
distributed by candidates, or demanded by some voters.
“Invariably, there’s a high level of distrust among candidates and voters,
especially of certain candidates, who are known to be prone to cheating during
past elections, or perceived as suspicious in their current actions,” he said.
“So candidates and voters alike want to see a transparent process from the
start right through to the end of counting and beyond.
“Knowing the apparent rewards for gaining office or having their candidate win,
there is excessive inducement for the less honest candidates and voters, and
sometimes officials to commit criminal acts.
“At the end of the day, everyone is a loser from this malpractice, as it denies
the voters their preferred choice of candidate, and undermines the credibility
and therefore legitimacy of the whole process and outcome.”
Barker said preparation for the next general election must begin soon after
this election.
They must include reforms or rectifying problems identified in the conduct of
elections, updating systems and databases, reviewing the boundaries as
appropriate, appointing staff, strengthening management and oversight mechanisms.
Polling extended for
LLG
July 13, 2022The NationalMain Stories
Gulf election manager and returning officer Poevare Tore confirmed the issue
was raised with the electoral commission to use the 2017 common roll as a
supplementary list to conduct polling.
“We received the approval after the Kerema Urban LLG polling was disrupted last
week as many missed out on polling,” he said.
Tore said polling teams for the other nine LLGs were also issued the
supplementary list from 2017 before they left.
“Up to date, the LLGs are using the 2022 common roll, but if names of voters
are not found in that roll, they will use the 2017 so that there won’t be any
more confusion.” he said.
Tore said the extended polling dates, especially for Kerema Urban, gave ample
time for those who had missed out to cast their votes in a one-day polling
approved by the provincial election steering committee.
“The committee has decided to conduct a day’s polling (today) to ensure all
locals from the nine wards of the Urban LLG will gather at town’s basketball
court where the polling station will be set up for the activity,” he said.
Tore said other LLG polling teams were almost done and was looking forward to
the counting.
The only local level governments expected to complete polling by Friday are
Kotidanga, Kaintiba and East and West Kikori LLG areas.
Kairuku ballots set for counting
People camping outside
Murray Barracks in Port Moresby yesterday. Kairuku is the first out of four
electorates in Central to transport their ballot boxes to the counting venue at
Murray Barracks. – Nationalpic by KENNEDY BANI
KAIRUKU was the first
of Central’s four electorates to transport their ballot boxes to the counting
venue in Port Moresby, an official says.
Returning officer Henry Oa said 50 ballot boxes safely arrived at the counting
centre in Murray Barracks on Monday afternoon.
“Twenty-five boxes are for the open seat and the other twenty-five are for the
regional seat,” he said.
“These boxes are locked in a container and the container is in front of the
Murray Barracks gymnasium.”
Oa said counting for Kairuku will commence on Thursday as Tuesday and Wednesday
were days given to officials to prepare.
“On Tuesday, we had a brief, on Wednesday we will conduct training for the
polling officials and on Thursday, counting for Kairuku will begin,” he said.
Oa said during the six days of polling, there were no reports of serious issues
encountered.
“Many villagers missed out on voting and there were many complaints and
arguments between them and the polling officials,” he said.
“There were no serious issues such as election-related violence, the Kairuku
people had a calm polling.”
Oa said polling began in July 4 and ended on July 9.
Manus polling tomorrow, counting in ENB starts
POLLING in Manus commenced on Thursday and is
expected to end next Thursday with counting of ballots starting on Monday,
Commander Chief Insp Kiweri Kesambi says.
“We are giving time to all the polling teams to return to Lorengau before we
start counting the ballots,” he said.
Kesambi said the counting venue for the two seats, Manus provincial and open,
would be conducted at the Lorengau main market.
“Polling in the province had been quiet with no major incident,” he said.
“The only issue we faced was the names of many eligible voters were missing
from the printed common roll.”
While giving the election updates in the province, Kesambi also urged everyone
to respect the counting process and not cause disturbances.
Polling for all the four local level government areas of Balanataman, Kombiu,
Watom Island and Rabaul urban in East New Britain were completed on Friday and
the counting was scheduled for yesterday at the Malaguna Technical Secondary
School hall.
Counting for Kokopo and East New Britain provincial seat also commenced
yesterday, while counting for Gazelle is schedule for tomorrow.
Comments
Post a Comment