Why voters need education

The 2017 Observation Report put together by Political Parties Registrar Dr Alphonse Gelu outlined several issues that must be sorted out before the next election.
One issue that this newspaper thought was significant and needed highlighting before last year’s general election was on political parties.
We swayed more towards promoting the different political parties and its platforms.
To be fair to voters, political parties should make it their duty to clearly define who they are, their policies, membership and the kind of people who will be representing them in Parliament.
Dr Gelu has been stressing the need for political parties to register, recruit members and inform the people about their policies and other relevant information.
We can safely say that right now, the people only know about the established political parties but not the new ones. The new parties have only themselves to blame because they failed to do their homework.
This newspaper anticipated that it would be the big political parties – those that have adequate resources and were known because they had been in government or parliament – which would take advantage of the situation, and they did.
On the performance of parties, the report said, for existing parties – those in Government performed strongly in their campaigns – PNC, PPP, URP and NA.
The surprise come-back was Pangu – which had been dominant in past elections. Last year it won most of the seats in Morobe and Madang.
The report will be useful source of reference for policymakers to use and strengthen the election system.
We say it is back to the drawing board for most of the 45 political parties which contested last year general election.
Most failed miserably to make their policies known because they literally did nothing to promote their platforms.
Much had been said about educating voters to be better informed so they would know who to vote for.
Previous researchers said most people in PNG cast their votes for candidates they believed were mostly likely to help them directly or help their families or help their village.
In the last election, despite the much-publicised campaign to vote on party policies and look out for personal traits in a candidate, it was obvious that the trend for localised voting continued.
The only way to move away from that is through quality education from the urban to rural schools.
The majority of voters in this county are the rural majority, which means they will either be illiterate or semi-literate.
Despite the awareness of the limited preferential voting system, many still do not understand that LPV system allows three choices for the voter.
Realistically it will take more than just talking through awareness, seminars and roadshows to achieve the change in mentality on this issue.
The educated elites have the chance now to make a change – to reach out to the rural population and educate them on the electoral process.
If there is no education, be rest assured the voting trend of casing votes for candidates who they think and know is mostly likely to help them directly or help their families or help their village will happen again.