EC wants permanent ROs

ELECTORAL Commissioner Simon Sinai welcomes the idea of introducing permanent Returning Officers (ROs), in an effort to decentralise the powers of the Electoral Commission (EC).
Sinai said that if the Department of Personnel Management (DPM) were to allow for the EC to do so, then they would be looking at creating positions for more than 96 permanent ROs to help facilitate a smoother election process.
He further added that a recommendation of having permanent ROs along with addressing other challenges during the General Election 2022 (GE22), will be discussed during the week-long post GE22 review held by the EC in Port Moresby.
“We are currently facing problems with the court disputes and electoral documents that are not filed and not accounted for well in terms of trying to support the court and those who are aggrieved,” he said.
“So as a management body, yes we need to look at decentralising our powers.
“Just looking at ROs, if we’re going to have permanent officers then we’re looking at more than 96 ROs who will be in permanent positions doing this work.”
During his two meetings already held with the Inter-Departmental Election Committee, Sinai has expressed his interest in creating the positions and is now looking to DPM to relax their rules to give the opportunity for the EC to add to their structure.
“We are working towards asking DPM and there’s some indication of approval there so we’ll see if we can have them and base them in the provinces so that they can go out and start preparing the elections,” he said.
“That will be part of the discussions of the ongoing workshop as he added that he was grateful that the executive Government had now realised that an advanced plan was needed, rather than waiting for the election to get closer.”