Govt wants biometric system

By CLIFFORD FAIPARIK
PRIME Minister James Marape says the Government aims to run the biometric voting system in the 2022 national elections.
He said the system had been trialed at several recent elections, including the Goroka Open by-election, the local level government by-election for the Poreporena ward in the Motu Koitabu Assembly and the Kupiano ward by-election, Abau, Central.
“We have seen that it (biometric voting system) was very successful,” he said.
“We will trial it out again and get it on a larger scale in the 2022 national elections.”
Marape said trialing the biometric voting system in the by-elections was part of efforts to ensure fairer, safer and efficient voting.
He said other features such as separate voting booths for men and women, one-day polling and cameras at polling stations had been trialed and these would all be implemented in coming elections to improve the electoral process.
“The general environment in Goroka was very fair to everyone,” he said.
“We trailed for two polling booths for males and females.
“This is our effort for fairer voting for everyone to make their own choice.”
Marape said the Electoral Commission would be well prepared for the 2022 national elections through adequate funding in the budget next year.
Meanwhile, Marape said the Government was considering a programme to unify common roll updates and National Identification cards to back up the 2022 national elections.
“It is 18 months away but we will allocate some money in the 2021 national budget to tidy up preparations for the 2022 national elections,” he said.
“We want to have cameras at polling booths just like the in Goroka by-election and so in 2022 we want to improve on what happened in 2017.”