Electoral roll update to be completed in March: EC

National

ELECTORAL Commissioner Patilias Gamato expects the final electoral roll for next year’s general election to be completed and printed by the end of March.
“I expect all provinces to complete their field work by mid-December,” he said.
“The month of January should be used for any flow-over only for big provinces. Roll display and objections will be done in February.”
Gamato said the roll update exercise, which was a crucial part of the electoral process, was currently progressing in the provinces.
“As election managers and assistant managers, you must closely monitor these activities and ensure that the data entry process is progressing well and properly,” he told them.
Discrepancies were picked up during data-entry process for enrolment pilot projects in Alotau, Rigo and Kokopo and that must not be reaped.
Meanwhile, inustructions has been given to the deputy in-charge of election administration Simon Sinai, with the support of technical advisers from the International Federation of Election Systems and the Australian Electoral Commission, to start working on the roll objection process.
“I want to see provinces which complete their data processing early publish their rolls and display them for objections,” he said.
“I want the objection period to be shorter. The objection period can be one month, but if the issues are genuine, they can be fixed within a week or less.”