Papua New Guinea is ready for polling, says Electoral Commissioner

Papua New Guinea goes to polls on Monday 4 July and Electoral Commissioner Mr Simon Sinai says the Electoral Commission is ready and looking forward to it.

Speaking at a press conference yesterday, (Friday 1 July), Mr Sinai said all preparations for the polling have been completed and the Electoral Commission is ready to deliver a free, fair and safe election.

 Papua New Guinea is ready for polling, says Electoral Commissioner [Photo: Simon Sinai/Supplied]

“From the Electoral Commission, all preparations have been done for polling, especially in terms of electoral roll, ballot papers, polling team kits, polling officials, Returning Officers (ROs) and Assistant Returning Officers (AROs) appointments, and election trainings.”

As of last week, all the election polling materials were dispatched throughout the 22 provinces.

Mr Sinai added Ballot papers are currently being transported to each district in each of the 22 provinces and onto Local Level Governments (LLGs).

“All provinces have received all the necessary election materials needed for polling and that shows we have completed necessary preparations from the EC Headquarters level.

“We have now shifted the election tasks to the Provincial Electoral Offices, Provincial Election Managers and the ROs in each districts and ARO’s in each of the 360 LLG’s around the country , and the polling teams will go into the council level using the polling schedule and the polling locations,” he said.

He stressed that the 2022 National General Election Polling schedule for all 22 provinces and their districts and LLG’s are being finalised and will be published in various news outlets.

There are currently 5988 teams around PNG, unlike the previous election where there were 9000 teams, however, Mr Sinai is expecting an increase in the polling teams basically because of timing to progress the counting, due to the July 29

deadline, as the “stopping point”.

“We will not go beyond that date, 29 July 2022 because this is the date that election writs will be returned.

“We did a cross check across all provinces and confirmed that all are ready as all ballot boxes are labelled and sent according to the numbering of provinces and the ballot papers.

Mr Sinai added that his “EM’s and RO’s are currently sorting out the provincial election teams.

Meanwhile, Mr Sinai further clarified that the K250 million election funding from the K460 million ,have been used on electoral materials and other logistical expenses, including engagement of election officials and allowances.

“We are engaging more than 48 000 election officials across the country because we want to ensure that everything is in order and easy to manage and control.”

Mr Sinai confirmed polling will commence on Monday 4 July 2022, for Southern, New Guinea Islands and Momase regions.

Polling dates for the Highland’s provinces are:

• Hela – Monday 4 th July 2022
•  Enga – 7 th July 2022
•  Southern Highlands – 11 th July 2022
•  Eastern Highlands - 12 th July 2022
•  Western Highlands and Jiwaka – 13 th July 2022
•  Chimbu – 15 th July 2022

“Polling for Highlands region has seen spacing to allow Police mobility to and from to assist with security, and this schedule for highlands provinces are done in consultations with RPNGC.

“For NCD polling, it was moved to Wednesday 6 July, to allow all eligible voters to vote,” he added.

Caption: Electoral Commissioner Mr Simon Sinai.

Next : PNG IDEC official government website zero - rated: Pomaleu