FUNDS to pay election counting officials in Eastern Highlands province will be made available by the end of the week, an Electoral Commission accountant said yesterday.
The official, who asked not to be named, said the funds had been withheld by the head office in Port Moresby due to the large number of people to be paid.
He said the commission had to check the details of every recipient listed before remitting the amount requested.
“We expect the money to come at the end of this week. Our priority is to pay the counting officials.
“As soon as I get the money, we will organise to pay them,” he said.
The accountant, who has been threatened and harassed by disgruntled counting officials, said that unlike in the past, each province operated an account for the elections.
“We have been threatened and harassed but we are still coming to work because we have to get the money to pay them for the work they have done,” he told The National.
Some of the counting officials met in front of the commission’s office in Goroka yesterday and came up with some suggestions over the payment.
A man claiming to be their spokesman, Jacob Nagamisiwo, said they had also lodged a complaint with the police and sought permission to stage a peaceful sit-in until they were paid.
He also suggested that Electoral Commissioner Andrew Trawen sent one of his officials from Port Moresby to meet with them.
Over in Western Highlands, members of the police force have threatened to take the department, the Electoral Commission and the State to court for non-payment of their election allowance.
They issued the threat at a meeting at the Kimininga Police Barracks in Mount Hagen yesterday.
They said they provided security for the extra 10 days of polling but had not been paid for it.
 

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