Candidates cry foul over roll

FIFTEEN candidates in the race for the Lae Open seat are crying foul over the absence of the common roll with only three days left before polling.
Candidate Michael Badui said he and his counterparts believed that foul play was involved in the delay of producing the common roll.
“Many of us had spent the last four to five years building up our support base and ensuring that our voters were registered, yet we were unable to confirm their names against the official voters' list prior to polling day,” he said.
Mr Badui claimed that officers within the Electoral Commission in Lae were working with the sitting MP to block their bid and this “lent credence to claims made in the past about thousands of names from potential voters in the electorate missing in the common roll”.
He said he had about 21,000 names of supporters and he needed to check them against the list but until yesterday, there was none available in Lae.
He flew to Port Moresby yesterday afternoon to take the matter up with the commission and his lawyers.
“The system, to date, is not fair on the candidates,” Mr Badui said.

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