B’ville voters urged to enrol

By JEFFREY ELAPA
THE referendum roll is separate and different from the previous roll used in Bougainville for the regional and national elections, an official says.
Enrolment for regional or national elections does not guarantee inclusion in the referendum roll, he said.
Therefore, all persons eligible should make an effort to enrol, chief Bougainville referendum officer Mauricio Claudio said in his presentation to the Bipartisan Parliamentary Committee on Bougainville matters.
Claudio, who has experienced referendums in Timor Leste and Iraq, said it was the responsibility of all persons eligible to enrol.
“It is the responsibility of the BRC (referendum committee) to provide enrolment. Persons eligible to vote in the referendum who are not on the referendum roll will not be permitted to vote in the referendum,” he said.
Claudio said enrolment consisted of three phases, and that the first phase was a desk exercise comparing the rolls used for the 2015 ABG election against community government population records.
He said the second phase would be face-to-face enrolment of eligible persons using trained ward recorders at each of the 442 community government wards in Bougainville and phase three scheduled to start this month but funding delays could push it to next month.
“Active enrolment of non-resident Bougainvilleans, that is, Bougainvilleans outside Bougainville but inside PNG, will also get underway in May,” Claudio said.
He said phase three was for checking enrolments and an objection period.
It is estimated that the referendum roll will have 200,000 to 225,000 voters.