EC spent K43.5 million

The Electoral Commission has to date spent K43.5 million on this year’s general election, Electoral Commissioner Patilias Gamato says.
He said after an inter-departmental election committee meeting to discuss preparations for the election that the amount was spent or committed for expenses.
Gamato thanked the Government, through Chief Secretary and committee chairman Isaac Lupari, for the timely funding.
“So far, we have committed K43.5 million,” he said.
“Those expenses have already been committed.
“We still have about K56 million in the trust account, but these are funds already earmarked for other projects.
“Our critical months are May, June and July.
“June, basically because we are going to start with polling, and going towards July is when counting is done.
“Immediately after counting, declaration of results are done and we should prepare for the writs to be returned to the head of State.”
Gamato said with the support of PNG Defence Force and Australian Defence Force, the commission was working on logistics, especially the distribution of election materials.
He said the commission would need:
n 30,000 temporary election workers to work with the commission during polling and counting; and,
n 4870 polling teams for the 22 provinces, 89 electorates, 341 local level governments and 6228 wards in the country.
“We will have 10,798 polling places,” Gamato said.