WHP Electoral manager admits to conflicting number of ballot papers

The Electoral manager of Western Highlands province in the 2007 general election admitted in court yesterday that a ballot box containing 900 ballot papers, which were counted, should have initially 1,205 ballot papers.
Kali Rawali, the Electoral Commission’s witness, admitted that ballot box number 0385 from Keltiga in the Mt Hagen Open electorate contained only 900 ballot papers, while the initial returns showed a record of 1,205 voters.
After being questioned by Alfred Manase, counsel representing former governor Paias Wingti, whether he (Mr Rawali) was aware of the controversy surrounding ballot box number 0385 before ordering counting to proceed, Mr Rawali said he knew.
Mr Rawali, however, said that the people voting at the polling booth made mistakes of placing open ballot papers in the regional ballot box while placing regional ballot papers in the open ballot boxes.
He told the court that the mistakes made by the voters were the reason why the numbers on the returns could not correspond to the ballot papers in the box.
Mr Rawali said because of the new voting system, many ballot papers were marked wrongly resulting in many informal votes.
Justice David Cannings adjourned the court to 9am today.
He said the court would hear the respondent’s last witness and then he would take written submissions from the parties’ lawyers.