Counting for Moresby North-East progressing

By Muhuyupe Soranzi
COUNTING for the Moresby North-East electorate is progressing well with scrutineers and counting officials working together, an official says.
Assistant returning officer for Moresby North-East wards 5 and 6, Billy George told The National yesterday that since counting started on Monday, it had progressed smoothly with no major hiccups up to yesterday.
“Counting for the Moresby North-East is progressing well with no major issues since the counting started on Monday,” he said.
“We have explained clearly to the scrutineers on the counting process and procedures and they now understand it.
“Therefore, the scrutineers now know their roles and are only in the counting room to observe, the counting is running smoothly at the moment.”
George said there were 154 ballot boxes to be counted before the elimination process therefore they have two shifts for day-and-night counting.
“We have two counting shifts; one shift starts at 8am and finishes at 8pm while the other shift picks up from 8pm and ends at 8am,” he said.
“Our target is to count 20 ballot boxes per shift but at the moment, the highest we have counted in one shift is 10 boxes.
“If there are not many questions asked by the scrutineers then our target is to complete 20 boxes per shift.”
George said allowances for the officials were delayed a bit because Moresby North-East had the biggest number of officials in the city’s three electorates so it took a while for everyone to get their allowances.
“However, the last allowances were paid into accounts today (yesterday) especially for the polling officials and the presiding officers.”
George said the returning officers and the assistant returning officers were working together with the counting officials and also the counting officials had all given their assurance that they would all work as a team until all boxes were counted.