Angry voters in East Sepik and Hela have destroyed ballot boxes and set fire to ballot papers after finding that their names were not on the common roll in Papua New Guinea’s general election.

No reports were received of people or election officials being hurt in the violence.

Polling started on Monday and will run through to Friday in all 22 provinces.

Despite an assurance by the Electoral Commissioner Simon Sinai that more than five million eligible voters would cast the ballots, many voters have been turned away because their names are not on the common roll, while in other locations there are not enough ballot papers for the number of eligible voters.

In Hela, nine ballot boxes were destroyed in various polling stations by angry voters while in Morobe, 300 ballot papers went up in flames by disappointed eligible voters who could not cast their votes because they were not registered on the common roll.

When responding to rumours of hijacking of ballot boxes, Hela provincial police commander Senior Inspector Robin Bore confirmed that ballot boxes were burnt and destroyed by voters on Monday morning.

He said the boxes destroyed were in Komo (4), North Koroba (2), South Koroba (1), Hulia (1) and Tari Pori local level government (1) while polling continued in the other parts of the province.

Polling boycotted
In Morobe, frustrated voters from Wampar urban local level government in Huon Gulf district boycotted polling on Monday and ordered the burning of about 300 ballot papers in the presence of police and Electoral Commission officials.

Huon Gulf returning officer Daniel Wasinak said eligible voters were frustrated that they were not registered on the common roll and they could not cast their votes.

He said about 700 ballot papers were designated for the ward, with two polling places identified.

First polling place is the Igam market just outside the PNG Defence Force Igam Barracks gate while another polling place was inside the army barracks for soldiers and their families.

In Wewak, East Sepik, polling at ward 12 Wewak Urban was suspended, again when names of eligible voters. This time PNG Defence Force soldiers from Moem Barracks could not find their names on the electoral roll.

Polling in Moem Barracks started at 11am with officers opening up the boxes but polling was halted for over two hours and cancelled at 2pm when soldiers argued that if their names were not on the roll, no one would vote, including their wives and children who were registered on the roll.

Polling was suspended indefinitely.

Voters devastated
At another polling station, also in Wewak, hundreds of voters who turned up at the polling booths yesterday were left devastated that they could not vote because they were not registered on the electoral roll.

Many of these voters were not first-time voters as they had voted in previous elections.

Long time families and residents of Makun and Malasi, including the Sauns, Koskys, Bangus and Silings are among those who have not found their names on the electoral roll.

In Aitape-Lumi, West Sepik Province, polling will commence when fuel and candidate lists are made available to the election officials on the ground.

Aitape-Lumi returning officer John Awas said polling has been deferred to whenever polling materials and fuel were made available.

He further confirmed that polling teams were yet to be deployed to their respective polling areas in the district.

Polling deferred
“Aitape-Lumi has deferred polling because payment for fuel to the local suppliers were not received and the suppliers would not give us fuel on credit either to enable us to move around and insert polling teams to their assigned location,” Awas said.

Meanwhile, candidates for several seats in Hela have warned that counting would not be allowed until they sorted out the disputed ballot boxes on record.

Candidate Francis Potape said there were two deaths from fighting at polling stations and six ballot boxes were allegedly hijacked at Takali.

He said yesterday that helicopters were still picking up people who were still polling in places only accessible by air.

Republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Papua New Guinea went to the polls yesterday to begin electing the 11th national Parliament only to find out that there were names missing on the common roll while some polling stations were short of ballot papers around the country.

The distribution of ballot papers and the common roll update has been an issue over the past few months with the Electoral Commission continuing to provide assurance. But this was not the case yesterday.

In Lae, former four-term Lae MP Bart Philemon was turned away at his Butibam village polling booth because his name was not on the common roll.

Stefan Armbruster reports from Tari on the opening day of the PNG election.
Video: SBS News

“If this can happen in an urban village in Lae city, how can we be sure if people living in the vast remote areas around the country are casting their votes?,” he asked.

“Are they or will they exercise their fundamental democratic right which comes only after 5-years?”

Reports from other centres around the country included East New Britain, Central, Northern, Hela and Morobe provinces also facing the same issues yesterday.

Several locations in Central Province, voters had to argue with polling officials because their names were not on the common roll and these were the voters who had voted in the 2017 general election.

Central provincial police commander Superintendent John Midi confirmed that several commotions between voters and election officers had been reported at various locations in Hiri Koiari electorate.

Voting is underway in #PNG. @StefArmbruster is on the ground – covering his 3rd lot of elections. Bringing context & insight https://t.co/AKuXNW0OPK @GAIGriffith @SBSNews

— Dr Tess Newton Cain (@CainTess) July 4, 2022

‘Explain for peace’
“It is to due to ballot papers and voters which only the PNG Electoral Commission officials assigned to these areas have the powers to explain for peace among people during polling,” Superintendent Midi said.

Meanwhile, Philemon said the Electoral Commission had five years to update the common roll and to ensure that all eligible citizens were listed but it had failed the people of this country.

“I fail to understand the Electoral Commission failing its primary responsibility to update the roll,” he said.

The former MP said the Electoral Commission cannot in uncertain terms deny the fundamental democratic rights of its citizens to elect their leaders which falls every five years.

Philemon said the incompetency of public servants in the government workforce was a contributing factor not only to elections but other issues affecting health, education, transport infrastructure, law and order as well.

Frank Rai is a PNG Post-Courier reporter. Republished with permission.

Voters will elect 118 members of parliament, including governors of the 22 provinces, from the 3,600-plus candidates nominated. https://t.co/9KrQ6tqIlF

— RNZ Pacific (@RNZPacific) July 4, 2022

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Prime Minister James Marape has assured Papua New Guinea that the 2022 National General Election will go ahead as scheduled, reports the PNG Post-Courier.

He dismissed fears that the election will be deferred due to concerns over funding and the electoral roll, which is yet to be updated, with only seven months to go before the issue of writs.

“Do we have time? I concur that time is running out for us to work. We have seven months left before the writs are issued.

“We can squeeze a work program in by all sectors of government to ensure that we arrive in the 2022 election in June and July,” he said.

Marape said the update of the common roll or electoral roll was an important requirement to progress good elections in 2022.

He said the government is conscious about that and would ensure that adequate funding was secured to get all the necessary preparations for the elections in place.

“In the past we do have heavy census, heavy NID (national identification) exercises and heavy common roll updates that consume a lot of money.

For example, to do common roll updates, they come up with budgets of K200-K300 million (NZ$80-NZ$120 million), the NID exercise consumes K300-K400 (NZ$120-NZ$160 million) and the census also has a funding submission to that tune,” Marape said.

“We do not have the luxury of funds to conduct different census or common rolls.

“We are trying to do it in a cost efficient manner in which we get to know our population.

“We will a do headcount and from one population data we could migrate that into our census.

“In the September-October period, every district and province is informed to prepare to assist our ward members update the population of the 6000 wards that we have nationwide.”

Ward members can update baseline population headcount from household to household. They are are closest to the people.

“The PNGEC (PNG Electoral Commission) team, from this population data base, will verify those who are 18 years and above to be migrated to the common roll and that will take place in December, January, February and March, for the common roll verification and update,” Marape said.

“By April-May that data will be ready to be used for the election.”

He said this during question time when responding to questions from Esa’ala MP Davis Steven.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz