Apply same rule to all electorates

THE National’s front page “1-day polling” for the National Capital District and seven Highlands provinces yesterday should not be ignored.
This is a good idea by the Electoral Commission, but this type of “divide and rule” tactic is dangerous for our election processes.
Such an idea can only be successfully implemented one or two days towards the end of the polling period so that all counting throughout Papua New Guinea can be done at the same time and results declared at the same time.
The country should not allow only one-day polling in the National Capital District and the Highlands provinces only and go straight into counting and declarations while other provinces and districts are still polling as early declarations of result may influence the outcome of election results of many other pending polling and declarations of results throughout the country.
In any commonwealth elections, one-day elections can be allowed but the same laws apply across the country, meaning that if the Electoral Commission decides on a one-day polling, then it should apply to all provinces and not a selected few.
In the 2017 national elections, we have experienced that a few electorates, including that of a former prime minister Peter O’Neill, conducted one-day elections and were given approval to go head and count and results were declared way ahead when other provincial and open electorates seat were beginning to conduct polling and counting processes.
This should not be repeated.
The last 10 years of politics in PNG has seen a lot of changes since the illegal overthrow of the Somare government.
We have learnt enough.
Do not repeat the same mistakes.

Samson Napo