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Leaders urged to
cooperate in roll update
By FRANK RAI
WARD councillors and community leaders in
the Wapenamanda district of Enga province have been urged to cooperate
during the updating of the common roll.
Wapenamanda District Returning Officer Ross Rasaka said last Wednesday
the common roll update teams were proceeding into the second phase to
identify and eliminate duplicated, ghost and false names.
Mr Rasaka said reports from his officials indicated that some leaders
were blocking the update teams from eliminating ghost names by luring or
threatening them to have the first phase figures finalised.
“I am calling on the leaders to co-operate with our officials and not to
cheat with false figures, Mr Rasaka said.
“We know that some council wards have fewer people than there is on the
first phase of the common roll.”
He said the major problem faced during the first phase of the update was
the contradicting figures identified between Census 2000 and the common
roll update 2006.
Mr Rasaka said figures showed that there were more names on the common
roll compared to the census figures.
“The Census 2000 figures are low and we see that the common roll update
2006 figures have increased drastically.
“Normally, we expect a 5% increase after five years on the common roll
because of migration, young women getting married to other tribes,
tribal refugees and so on, but these figures presented for Wapenamanda
from the first phase of the update is not the real figure.”
Mr Rasaka added that the second and third stages of the elimination
process in the update would expose the real figure later this month.
He said the current population for Wapenamanda stood at 46,000 but that
figure was questionable and that his officers were working to get it
right before polling began.
 
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