Ballot papers arrive

By CLIFFORD FAIPARIK
THE 10 million ballot papers for the general election this year have arrived from Indonesia and are now being kept at a secret location guarded by police and soldiers.
Electoral Commissioner Patilias Gamato said: “The containers of ballot papers were taken to a highly-secured location in Port Moresby where they are being heavily guarded by a squad comprising police and military personnel.”
The containers arrived from Semarang City in Central Java, Indonesia last Tuesday and cleared by Customs on Wednesday.
“In the next one and a half months, the ballot papers will be unpacked and repacked according to enrolment figures and dispatched to each province two weeks prior to the commencement of polling on June 24,” Gamato said.
Gamato said earlier the printing of the papers with eight security features at Pura Group in the Central Java city was three times cheaper than if done locally.
“To print at the Government Printers in Waigani will cost K23million. In Semarang, it will cost only K6.6million including delivery to Port Moresby and eight security features embedded (in the ballot papers),” he said.
“They are specialised in such business. They also do Indonesian ballot papers. I visited them last year,” he said.
Gamato said the ballot papers were different to the ones used in 2012.
“We have changed the features because every election we must change them. We are printing 10millon ballot papers. Five million papers each for the Open and Provincial seats,” he said.
Gamato said metal ballot boxes would be used in the Highlands and plastic ballot boxes in the coastal areas.
The election process begins with the issuing of writs next week Thursday.