Civil groups to conduct election awareness

CIVIL society organisations (CSOs)in East New Britain that will carry out election awareness in the province will be signing their contracts on Friday.
The election awareness drive in the province was raised as a major concern in a recent provincial election steering committee meeting.
It was found election awareness was lagging because of a lack of funding and support from the Electoral Commission.
Funds tied to provincial election offices were mainly for the common roll update and maintenance, while funds for awareness programmes were given by the Commission through electoral support funding from AusAID to be carried out by CSOs nationwide.
Chairman Clement Irasua said all available resources would be fully used and directed its sub-committee on awareness to identify maximum strategies to educate people about the upcoming general election.
The main objectives of the awareness are advocating good governance, voting in leaders with good leadership qualities and who could deliver transparently and accountably and educating the people on the limited preferential voting system.
He said officers from the Electoral Commission help desk would finally arrive in the province finalise all necessary procedures and sign off contracts that would allow CSOs to go ahead with election awareness.
Irasua said more than nine CSOs had been identified to carry their tasks evenly throughout the four districts.