Enga councillor hails plan to have biometric system

 By ELIAS LARI

A COUNCILLOR in Enga has praised the national government in its plan to introduce the biometric system to help future elections in PNG.

Luther Makelgo from the Yanarian-Lanekap council ward in the Wabag district said elections were always troublesome in PNG and the proposed system would improve the way elections were conducted.

“This is because the current election system we are using involves corruption and I believe the biometric will give more power to the people to decide,” he said.

Makelgo said the government had wasted a lot of money on election petitions and by-elections because of cheating, bribery, threatening and hijacking of the normal election process.

“PNG is a very young nation and it is not good when we are exposed to the international community about our behaviour during election,” he said.

He said introducing the biometric system would help the government weed out corrupt practices during elections.

“We have witnessed supporters of candidates going around threatening and intimidating citizens with firearms and abusive words,” he said.

“This is not right and the only hope for people now will have to have a free, fair and a safe election is the biometric system.”