Eligible voters refuse to cast votes

The National National
Women at the Iawakaka ward in the Balanataman LLG of Rabaul, East New Britain, queuing on Monday. Returning officer Babel Umri said the 18 polling teams were sent to the polling venues in the Kombiu, Balanataman, Watom and Rabaul Urban LLGs. – Picture supplied

By ROSELYN ELLISON
PEOPLE have refused to cast their votes on Monday at a polling station in Kokopo, East New Britain, when most of their names were not on the common roll.
Donald Kunai, the returning officer (RO) for Kokopo, told The National that the residents of the Vunamurmur ward refused to cast their votes on Monday.

Polling clerks Thecla Varpit and Alex Manding at the Kokopo-Vunamami Urban LLG of Kokopo district checking the name of voter Trevor Titi on the common roll at the Botanical Garden polling station on Monday. – Nationalpic by ROSELYN ELLISON

The ward is in the Raluana local level government.
Kunai explained that most of the voters claimed that they had given their names to be registered during the ward common roll update.
They tried to force their way into the polling station to cast their votes but were sent away by the polling officials.

Morobe regional candidate Sheila Pati Harou casting her vote at the 7th Street ward council in Lae on Monday. – Nationalpic by MALIKAI BALANDU

The rest of the villagers then decided to boycott polling.
Kunai said the common roll for all the wards in the Raluana, Kokopo-Vunamami Urban, Bitapaka and Duke of York Islands local level governments had been updated and submitted to the Electoral Commission.
He suspected that the commission failed to update the common roll.
“The updated roll from the EC was not what we expected,” he said.

A policeman addressing voters at ward 12 in the Nawaeb urban LLG in Morobe on Monday. – Nationalpic by BRADLEY MARIORI

“We did our part to make sure the rolls at all wards were updated.”
“There are 49,000 eligible voters but with the updated roll sent by the EC, only 50 per cent of them will vote.”
ENB election manager Joap Voivoi said according to the law, those whose names were not on the common roll would not be allowed to vote.

West New Britain Governor Sasindran Muthuvel checking his name on the common roll at the Karl Hesse Primary School in Kimbe on
Monday. – Picture supplied

Voivoi said the only names removed from the rolls were those of deceased persons, duplicated names and those who had moved to other districts.
He urged the ward recorders, ward members and LLG presidents in the province to properly update their common roll.