Cops need fund for election ops

POLICE need funding now to prepare for the 2022 election operation which is only about 10 months away, acting Deputy Police Commissioner Operation Donald Yamasombi.  “Time is really not on our side to prepare well for the 2022 election. That’s why we need the dates from the Electoral Commission to submit to the Government for funding,” he said.
“We are concerned about the security threats from the Covid-19 and violent criminal activities in traditionally peaceful provinces such as Milne Bay and Madang. “We are also concerned about the Highlands which traditionally is the hotspot area.” He said the constabulary wanted to have officers in the provinces to gather such information. The issuing of writs is usually in early April on the election year. A committee in charge of security operations met last Thursday.
An operation plan has been drafted to be submitted to Police Commissioner David Manning who is the security commander in the general election. “We spent the last few months reviewing the 2012 and 2017 elections to identify what can be done correctly, what went wrong and areas we can improve on,” he said.