150 counting officials to be replaced

THE 150 officials involved in the counting of primary votes in the Moresby North-West by-election are to be replaced by 40 new ones when counting enters the elimination stage.
Returning Officer Desmond Timiyaso said it was to ensure transparency in the counting process.
“The 150 counting officers engaged in the primary counting have been replaced to ensure a transparent counting process so that the winning candidate can be declared without any controversy,” he said.
He said Electoral Commission officials had already been accused of “vote rigging”.
“So we want to bring in new counting officers to ensure that we have a transparent elimination process,” he said.
The commission had hired temporary election workers for the polling and counting processes.
“Anyone engaged in the primary vote counting we don’t allow into the elimination process,” Timiyaso said.
“We (have) had so many accusations (so far) and we don’t want to bring the same counting officers into the elimination process.”
He said the 40 new counting officers had some experience in past Limited Preference Voting counting, especially in the elimination process.