Common roll chaos continues

GENERAL Election 2022 (GE22) polling chaos continues to reign in Port Moresby and nationwide, denying thousands, if not tens of thousands, of Papua New Guineans from exercising their right to vote on Friday – because their names were not found on the printed Common Roll.
Election managers and election returning officers (RO) continue to deny voters’ electoral rights despite Electoral Commissioner Simon Sinai’s directive to them to use the online voter roll online page on the Election Commission (EC)’s website to check names if they were not on the printed roll.
Prime Minister James Marape on Thursday admitted that the printed roll “was not adequately prepared” for GE22 and apologised to those unable to cast their ballots because their names were “missing”.
Marape suggested that everyone whose names were missing in the printed roll but had voted in 2017 or before, should be allowed to vote in GE22.
On Thursday, Sinai admitted that the printed roll was unreliable and directed election officials to use the online voter roll to check names that were missing in print.
On Friday, 1,200 ballot papers where brought to the polling centre at the Kaugere basketball court.
However, at the end of the day, only 205 people were allowed to cast their ballots with 995 unused ballot papers left as the majority who turned up to vote found their names missing in the printed roll.
A frustrated woman resident who did not want to be named told The National that it was unfair to be left out of GE22 as she had voted in GE2017.
“My name and my family’s names were in the 2017 common roll and we voted at this polling station,” she said.
“Why is it that now our names cannot be found?
“These ballot papers were sent here for us to elect our leaders but now we can only stand and watch because of the unreliable printed common roll,” she added.
Moresby South Justin Tkatchenko was one of the people who did not have his name in the common roll when he went to cast his vote on Friday.
Tkatchenko said it was frustrating that the electoral system in the country was incompetent and had not improved from the last election.
He was later allowed to vote after his name was not found in the printed roll book.

Overhaul common roll, says angry voter

PORT Moresby-South frustrated voter Rachel Thomson says the Electoral Commission (EC) must immediately overhaul its general election printed Common Roll.
“The chaos in GE22 polling is worse than in GE2017,” she said.
“It should have improved, based on lessons learnt, but it did not. The polling problems must be fixed before the next GE.”
Thomson, who has been a Port Moreby-South resident for more than 30 years, said operations of the polling booths was chaotic with no one knowing what they were doing.
“I thought it was going to be better than 2017 so I got here early at 8.30am (on Friday) but the polling booths were not set up until after 10am,” she said.
“There were no tables for (election officials) to set up (polling booths), so they were looking for tables.”
After the booths were set up at 10am, scrutineers argued with election officials to allow people whose names were not in the printed common roll to vote.
That delayed the start of polling until after midday when Port Moresby South Elections Returning Officer Tau Koea arrived and spoke to the crowd which saw voters queuing to vote by 1pm.
Thomson was one of the earlier voters who got to cast their ballots first in at 1pm after confirming her name on the online voter roll search and a second common roll booklet.
“The confusion was that they have broken the town area into different booklets (common roll),” she said.
“When I went to check, my name was not on the roll so I had to waste time and stand in another line to check.
“Thankfully my name was there and I am happy I got to vote,
However, that was the case for other residents who missed out on exercising their right to cast their ballots as their names were not on the printed roll.

After 10 general elections, Sioa, 95, cannot find name in roll

By LULU MAGINDE
IDAU Daure Sioa, 95, had been casting her vote in the 10 general elections since the country became independent in 1975, as her name had always appeared in the common roll.
Not this year though. When she arrived in a wheelchair at her Vabukori village polling venue in the National Capital District on Friday, she was told that her name was missing.
Officials turned her away.
Her daughter-in-law Aurakava Maki, who was pushing her wheelchair, said Sioa was frustrated because her name was missing for the first time, and disappointed because the election officials could not help her.
“In 2017, her name was in the common roll.
“But today, her name is not there.
“A lot of people lying here. She’s being denied her right,” Maki said.
Maki and her mother-in-law went to check at the other polling venue set up in the village.
But the officials turned her away too.
Polling for Moresby South’s Vabukori village began at 9am and was relatively quiet. Sioa was not the only one whose name was not on the roll.
There were others who were turned away.
“They should have been prepared better for this general election.
“If it was a young girl, it would have been fine.
“But she’s 95 years old now,” daughter-in-law Maki said.