Polling resumes despite attempted voter boycott

Polling resumed yesterday after officials and security officers negotiated with voters who attempted to boycott voting in Morobe’s Yalu village.
A police officer manning the polling site, who wished to remain anonymous, said voters were frustrated after they were told that some of them were not eligible to vote as their names were not in the common roll.
“When polling officials came to set up the polling booth, some disgruntled people tried to boycott polling, but polling began despite that,” the officer said.
“We advised them that only voters who had their names on the common roll would  vote.”
When The National visited Yalu, a large number of village people had gathered around the polling site while eligible voters stood in long queues to verify their names.
Presiding officer Herman Agreegum said polling was conducted slowly so they had to call the names of each eligible voter into the polling booth to vote.
“Earlier, eligible voters were checking with polling clerks to verify if their names were included so polling was conducted slowly,” he said.
“We decided to speed things up by calling their names on the updated common rolls to vote.”
Meanwhile, a unit from the PNG Defence Force and three police officers were guarding polling officials and materials.
Morobe police commander Augustine Wampe said polling started well in Morobe despite a few minor setbacks and all the police were deployed to polling locations throughout the province.