Poor preparations to ’17 election

Letters

IT seems that some of our current and aspiring politicians have already started campaigning for the 2017 general elections.
This is well ahead of the issuing of writs as shown by the numerous sudden announcements to resume abandoned projects or finally implement long awaited projects or services to fulfil five-year-old election promises.
However, what was supposed to be a vital precursor to the elections, via the registration of all the citizens, especially the eligible voters, appears to be miles off the track let alone complete the city or urban centres.
The newly-created National Identity Registry Office that was tasked with this enormous and expensive undertaking seems to have floundered not long after
starting and its much hyped up
publicity has fizzled out or abandoned.
And yet MPs don’t seem to be raising enough concerns about its sudden demise or death and the spending of the huge amount of taxpayers’ money that it was allocated when some 70 per cent of the population has yet to be registered with only six months left before the elections.
Can the NID Office and Minister for National Planning update the nation  on its progress or success
in terms of the total number of people by province that have actually been issued their personal ID cards?
How many have yet to be registered and what efforts are being made to complete the exercise and when?
It is absolutely appalling that such a critical mechanism to create honest elections and prevent corrupt practices and double voting by ineligible voters and minors was allowed to vaporize into thin air with millions of kina unaccounted for.
At a time the country is largely surviving on borrowed money that is being forced upon the next two or more generations to pay off.
One would think that the Government would be more vigilant in ensuring that every kina invested results in tangible benefits.

Concerned, Via email