Extra month to file

By MALUM NALU
PEOPLE intending to contest the general election have been given an extra month to submit their bio-data, says Electoral Commissioner Patilias Gamato.
This follows a request from political parties. The deadline lapsed yesterday. Intending candidates are required to fill the bio-data form (Form 29).
Candidates were lined up at the Electoral Commission headquarters in Port Moresby to submit their forms. Gamato decided yesterday to extend the deadline to Tuesday, Feb 28.
“Because a lot of political parties are not quite ready, they’ve asked if we could extend the time,” he told The National.
“I’ve made a decision to extend the time (to Feb 28). It gives ample time for political parties and candidates to fill the forms.”
He said the information would help the commission prepare for the election “in terms of developing candidate posters”.
Gamato said the normal practice was that immediately after nominations closed, the returning officer would do a draw and allot candidate numbers which candidates would use on their posters.
“We will use that to develop a candidate poster. We want to do that straight after the nominations close and the draws made,” he said.
The commission is expecting more than 4000 candidates to contest the 2017 general election.
He said if there was no extension, “there will not be enough time to generate candidate posters, have them printed and despatched to the 6000-plus polling places nationwide”.
“This is in light of the proposed legislative amendments to the election laws that will see the campaign period reduced from two months to one month,” he said.