Election dates approved

By CLIFFORD FAIPARIK
PAPUA New Guineans are expected to go to the polls to elect the 111 parliamentarians next June 11.
Nominations will be received at 4pm on April 14 to 4pm on April 21.
Polling will start on June 11.
The return of writs will be on or before July 15.
Governor-General (GG) Grand Chief Sir Bob Dadae’s acting official secretary Bill Toraso said Sir Bob has approved the tentative dates .
“The dates and activities have been approved by the GG and has been handed back to the acting Electoral Commissioner Simon Sinai,” Toraso said.
“However, those dates can be reviewed by Sinai and returned to Sir Bob for further consideration and re-approval.”
Sinai confirmed receiving the dates from Sir Bob. “We are ready to prepare for the national election,” he said.
“We already have the operations and administration plans as we are experienced in running elections.
“We are now waiting for the required funding from the Government to start our preparation plans.”
Sinai said the next general election was just 10 months away and the Government was yet to provide funding for the common roll updating and security operations.
“We need K463 million to prepare,” he said.
“We have already made a submission for K70 million to Treasury for the electoral roll update and are awaiting the funds.”
Sinai said the cost of security operations was not included in the K463 million proposed election budget.