Electronic voting vetted

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By ZACHERY PER

Constitutional and Law Reform Commission (CLRC) chairman Robert Atiayafa wants electronic voting to be introduced in the 2022 national election.
“The CLRC will embark on a new law to change the voting system, preferably to adopt an electronic or biometric voting  system with secure voter identification,” the Henganofi MP and former police minister said.
He made this known while presenting a vehicle to Goroka police yesterday.
Atiyafa said there were too many problems with the current voting system.
The chairman said the national identification (NID) programme should ensure all citizens were registered on its database before the next election.
“With electronic voting, a winner can be announced as soon as polling ends,” he said.  “This saves a lot of resources, time and  manpower.”
Atiayafa said CLRC would take the lead in vetting election laws  in a bid to develop an electronic voting system for the 2022 national election.
“The government has spent K200 million for the NID project but we have only registered 300,000 people,” he said.
“There are many yet to be registered.
“We must get officers to visit every village and register every individual so that the next elections are all-inclusive,” Atiayafa said.