Election authority needed: Webster

By AILEEN KWARAGU
THE 11th Parliament should consider forming an independent election management authority to prepare the country for General Election 2027 (GE27), an official says.
National Research Institute (NRI) research fellow Dr Thomas Webster said this authority would help improve the electoral system.
“The creation of the authority would take responsibility to run the whole system of the election if changes are made to the organic law,” he said.
Webster said the recommendation was done during his time as the director of NRI involved in GE07 but the Electoral Commission continued using the advisory committee.
“Using the advisory committee was about getting advice while the use of the independent management authority would be to manage the critical issues of the election up to the time of declaration,” he said.
“The only work the Electoral Commission is to concentrate on will be the operational issues,” he said.
Webster made this comments on radio yesterday during a discussion on issues relating to the extension of the return of writs and formation of the 11th Parliament.
He said with all issues from nominations, campaigning, polling and counting, the Electoral Commission had been overwhelmed.
“The 11th Parliament needs to consider creating this authority so it can concentrate on updating the electoral system, especially the common roll,” he said.
Webster said the authority and preparations for the GE27 would only be possible through changes in organic law and Constitution.

Association plans to stop teachers from election duties

PAPUA New Guinea Teacher’s Association vice-president Synell Ko’ou says this year’s election will be a lesson for teachers not to get involved in future elections.
Ko’ou said this should be the last time teachers participated in elections because it had caused a lot of issues in schools where some teachers had to cover for those teachers who missed classes to take part in counting.
He said this election really affected schools and this must not be repeated.
President Aita Sanangkepe said teachers were trained to teach students in classrooms and not to be involved in election counting activities.
“Teachers are the human resource builders and our job is to teach students in the classroom,” he said.
Sanangkepe told a media conference in Port Moresby that the involvement of teachers had resulted in schools being disrupted.
“We will make a final decision to stop teachers from being involved in the election activities,” he said.
Sanangkepe said this would be one of the agendas to be discussed in the September teachers’ convention.
“We are going to make sure that no more teachers are involved in election counting in future,” he said.
He said innocent children had been affected with the extension of school holidays and the deferral of grade 12 written examination.
He urged the Electoral Commission to stop teachers from being involved election counting.
Sanangkepe said the commission should train people to conduct the next election.

North-East RO explains delay with payment

Moresby North-East returning officer (RO) Billy George has explained that bank account issues are behind the delay in payment of allowances for polling and counting officials.
George told The National that some of the officials did not have their own personal bank accounts or were using third party accounts.
Election officials demanded that their allowances be paid before they continued counting at the Sir John Guise Stadium yesterday.
They raised their concerns to George before going into the counting venue to start work.
“On the day when they were employed, everyone was required to have a bank account,” the RO said.
“Most of them had given their account numbers while some had given third party bank accounts.
“Also some officials’ bank accounts became dormant, causing the delay in the payments.”
George said those with proper personal accounts would be paid while an alternative arrangement would be made to pay the rest.
He said that counting for North-East would be completed by next Thursday.