Goi: Preparations for 2012 general election on track

By JACOB POK
PREPARATIONS for the 2012 national election is progressing well, says Minister for State Wake Goi.
Goi, the Jimi MP and minister responsible for the PNG Electoral Commission, said the commission’s key priorities now were to get the electoral roll updated and ready for the 2012 election.
He said October 31 was the deadline for all electoral data in provinces to be sent to Port Moresby for processing into an electoral roll database.
However, he said a few provinces had completed voter enrolment while the majority were nearing completion.
He said some provinces needed more time to complete their electoral data.
Goi said the provinces that had completed voter enrolment and have data entered into electoral roll database would have their preliminary rolls printed and sent back to their respective provincial electoral offices, district offices, local level government offices and ward councillors for public viewing before the final rolls were printed and used in the election.
He said three provinces which completed their rolls were West New Britain, Central and Northern.
“In the meantime, elector data entry and audit of wards roll for New Guinea Islands, Momase and Southern regions were progressing well while data from the Highlands region were yet to be collected.”
He said most provinces in the New Guinea Islands were nearing completion except for the Autonomous Region of Bougainville.
He said voter enrolment was expected to start there in the few weeks.
For the Momase region, he said West and East Sepik had completed their voter enrolment while Morobe and Madang were still carrying out electoral data collection.