NID to collect, keep identity

 THE role of the PNG National Identification project is to create, update and maintain the population register for identity verification using the NID card, project implementers say.

The Department of National Planning and Monitoring and the PNG Civil and Identity Registry said the Civil Registration Act allows the PNG Civil and Identity Registry to register all births, NID, marriages and deaths.

They said the PNG NID card was the legal utility in the country that superseded all other forms of identification used to confirm citizen identity by linking one person to one identity.

They said in a statement that the Electoral Commission was one of the end users of this service amongst other government agencies and private entities.

“This initiative does not replace or in any way undermine the role of the Electoral Commission in enrolling voters and conducting elections nor does it affect their voter register,” the statement said.

‘With my NID Card I can vote’ as said in the advertisement, showed the NID card’s primary function of identity verification, to show who that person is.

But the advertisement did not say citizens with NID cards were automatically eligible to vote.

The implementers said there maybe confusion therefore they were reviewing all publicity material to make statements clear to the public about the uses and benefits of the NID cards.