EC to take note from referendum

By DELORESE TALASI
THERE is overwhelming empirical evidence of voter intimidation and electoral malfeasance having proliferated and spread to all parts of Papua New Guinea, a researcher says.
Dr Joe Ketan said this when responding to questions from The National about the Bougainville referendum.
Ketan said the PNG Electoral Commission could take specific lessons from the conduct of the Bougainville Referendum.
“The local government officials and other stakeholders took responsibility of the voter registration process – from enrolment to verification to updating – to ensure accuracy of the referendum roll,” he said.
“Polling was conducted in an orderly and professional manner, without apparent intimidation and undue influence.
“The franchise was maximised through postal voting, provisional voting, voting in all provinces of the country, external voting in Solomon Islands and Australia, voting in hospitals for the sick, visiting the homes of the sick and frail and by bringing polling stations to all LLG wards throughout the Autonomous Region of Bougainville,” he said.
“All ballot papers were reconciled at ward, district, and provincial levels and mixed before the scrutiny to prevent identification of voters for possible retributive action.”
Ketan said Papua New Guineans had lost trust in the integrity of the electoral process.
The Commonwealth Observer Mission to the 2017 national elections concluded that the election results represented the will of the voters.
The evidence presented by Transparency International (PNG) and the Australian National University Domestic Observer Team contradicts this statement.
“The will of the voters was distorted by electoral fraud and violence across the country,” Ketan said.
He said to restore integrity to both the electoral system (sets of rules governing conduct of elections) and the election process (stages) would take significant electoral reforms and considerable investment in credible systems and processes.
Education and compliance would need to go hand in hand.
“The important message to the people is the legitimacy of key public sector institutions – parliament, cabinet, political parties and the public service – depends on elections,” he said.
“Trust in government institutions depends on the credibility of elections.”