Elections ‘rife’ with foul play

By CLIFFORD FAIPARIK
A senior political scientist says that there have been many allegations of foul play in the 2017 national election.
University of Papua New Guinea political science lecturer Michael Kabuni said this on Friday during a two-day seminar reviewing the Organic Law on National and Local-Level Government elections.
He cited his own experience at the UPNG campus.
“For example, I was an observer at the polling station at University of Papua New Guinea,” Kabuni said.
“Polling didn’t start on time when all the eligible voters were there to vote.
“Since the polling officers did not give a clear indication whether polling will be held or not, almost everyone became frustrated and left the polling area.
“After all, they had waited for several hours to vote for the National Capital District governor and Moresby North-West candidates.
“Very late in the afternoon, the polling officers declared voting to start.
“People who had waited earlier and left then began to return to vote.
“Word started getting around that voting had commenced.
“By the time most of them returned to vote, the polling officers closed up the voting.”
Kabuni also said Transparency International and Commonwealth Observers’ reports stated that in a polling venue within the country, the ink marker was mixed with water to soften ink concentration.
“After the voters voted and marked with the ink on their fingernails, the ink vanished a couple of hours later,” he said.
“Such incidents can cause double-voting. When the observers asked the polling officers why they had tampered with the ink, the officers said that the ink supply was running low and voters will be turned away if there was no ink.
“Water had to be used to top up the ink.