PNG NATIONAL GENERAL ELECTIONS 2022 - COMMON ROLL

 

PNG ELECTORAL COMMON ROLL HAS GLARING SHORTFALLS

Former Morobe Governor Kasiga Kelly Naru (with yellow lei) and his supporters on the campaign trail.

 
By MIRIAM ZARRIGA

PAPUA NEW GUINEA’s Electoral Common Roll, important for the voting population in the 2022 National General Elections, has one glaring loophole, it is incomplete.

It is inaccurate and not up to date. Figures coming in from provinces paint a picture of incompetence, inconvenience and ineffectiveness, which will unfortunately result in a missed opportunity for millions of eligible PNG voters whose names are not on the roll.

Many of those who voted in 2002, 2007, and possibly 2017, will find that their names are not on the Common Roll in 2022 because an update of the roll, registration of new voters, started this year, and promptly ran out of steam.

While the PNG Electoral Commissioner Simon Sinai maintains over 6 million voters will be eligible, it is not known at this stage which common roll will be used in 2022.

Three weeks to go before the polls and the accuracy of the Electoral Roll for the 2022 national election is now an issue following revelation by provinces that many eligible voters were not registered.

Rigo hopeful John Numa on the roll in his district.

According to a random check with several provinces, over a million people were not registered and this number is expected to go up when all the figures of eligible voters that have not enrolled for various reasons are counted.

Officials in East Sepik, Milne Bay, National Capital District, Madang and Northern (Oro) provinces, say insufficient enrollment forms, shortage of funding and lack of time were among the main factors that contributed the failure to update the Electoral Roll properly.

“The Common (Electoral) Roll is the biggest issue with us at the moment. A large number of our voter population of almost 300,000 voters is not on the Common Roll,” East Sepik election manager, James Piapia said.

In the NCD, Assistant Election Manager Roselyn Tabogani confirmed that only 400,000 voters of almost a million population were captured in the electoral roll. 

"NCD was the last province to go out for enrollment. We did enrollment in the whole of March which is not enough."

Former Morobe Governors 'Songan' Luther Wenge (left) and 'Kasiga' Kelly Naru (right) at Naru's graduation with a degree in theology from the Lutheran University last year. Both are contesting for the Morobe Regional seat again.

Ms Tabogani confirmed reports from other provinces that there was not enough time for the Common Roll update teams to complete the exercise, leaving thousands out.

These provinces were joined by Northern and Milne Bay, whose officials confirmed that both budget and timing constraints limited their ability to update the electoral roll properly.

PNG Electoral Commissioner Simon Sinai announced recently that the Electoral Roll was completed with 6.2 million people registered to cast their votes throughout the country. PNG has an estimated population of 8-9 million.

The revelation by the provinces has now thrown the integrity of the report into question, and this is not the first time, the Electoral Roll was not updated properly to ensure every eligible voter in the country is given the right to exercise their right to vote.

In the previous elections, for example in 2002, 2007 and 2012, issues surrounding the Electoral Roll were observed and international election observers like the Commonwealth Observer Group reported serious flaws in the Electoral Roll.

Huon Gulf MP Ross Seymour (seated) on the campaign trail in Upper Yamap. Most people who live in the rural outback are not registered as no electoral team has visited them, denying them their basic rights to vote.

“Significant issues with the voter registration process were an unfortunate feature of the 2017 National Election, with a large number of names missing from the electoral roll,’ the Commonwealth Group reported.

“That sufficient funding and equipment be allocated for the periodic and regular enrolment, updating, and cleansing of the electoral roll, at least once every 18 months.

"And that permanent enrollment teams be employed at provincial levels to be managed by provincial election officers to travel across the electorate to record voter information and do it electronically and are adequately paid to do that job,” another observer group, the Pacific Islands Forum Election Observer team recommended.

Over 1000 international observers were deployed into the country to observe the 2017 election and they reported that the shortcomings in the conduct of the 2017 elections were attributed to two overarching causes.

These, they said, were the late and inadequate disbursement of the funds by the Government to the PNGEC to carry out its work and the significant delays in implementing electoral plans and preparatory work.

WHP Governor Paias Wingti (with hat) with highlands knights. He is one of the most shrewd and enduring figures in PNG politics. (l-r) Sir Yaungtine Koromba, former Southern Highlands premier; Sir Philip Kapal (former premier Western Highlands); Paias Wingti and Sir Nambuga Mara (former premier Western Highlands).

Mr Sinai said the Government released K40 million to undertake the latest exercise and the roll update took place between January and march in 2022 to capture new enrollments and update the existing lists. 

According to the 2022 election road map, the voter registration was to commence in October 2021 into 2022 April 2022 when the preliminary report was come out.

By mid April the preliminary report was to be available to political parties and candidates for objections and finalized towards June.  

The plan was affected due to the squeezed election time table that came out.  

The national parliament of PNG. The competition for the 118 seats is now heating up. But the mandatory common roll for people power is unfortunately short of voter eligibility.