EC confident of much-improved election

 By SHIRLYN BELDEN 

THE PNG Electoral Commission has revealed its corporate plan up to 2017 and is confident of holding a much-improved general election that year.

Electoral Commissioner Andrew Trawen said the 2013-17 corporate plan reflected its strong desire to take on board lessons learnt from the 2012 general elections and make improvements in 2017 and after that.

The corporate plan is derived from the Vision 2050 particularly the medium-term development plan to improve governance and public sector reform. 

“By developing the corporate plan which incorporates a five-year election reform programme, the electoral commission is confident that all the initiatives contained within the programme demonstrate its on-going commitment to meeting the objectives of the MTDP. 

“We are ready to work with stakeholders in the public and private sectors, key partners and the people of PNG to strengthen the democratic election process,” Trawen said. 

The plan calls for successful implementation of the 2013 local level government election which starts on June 6, continuous improvement of the electoral roll, support for the boundaries review commission and institutional strengthening. 

The key areas are: 

• Election roll improvement programme to improve data accuracy and security of the electoral roll which will include the bio-metric component with possible linkage to the national identification card;
• Boundaries review commission to review and assess legislation and processes available to the boundaries commission before the 2017 election so that recommendations from the boundaries commission are enacted;
• Institutional strengthening programme to improve structures and processes through the soon-to-be established strategic planning unit to conduct strategic planning and innovation processes, and
• An electoral compliance unit to address the rising trend of election-related offences to facilitate a process for enforcement for breaches of laws and regulations.