Launch of referendum reports welcomed

THE National Research Institute has launched two reports on the Bougainville referendum research project in Port Moresby.
“The research project is to help us understand and better prepare for this important event,” institute director Dr Osborne Sanida said.
The date for the Bougainville Referendum is June next year. It is the outcome of the Bougainville peace agreement signed in 2001.
The Administration of Referendums report is based on a comparative study of independence referendum.
The Independence Referendums report is on the history, practice and outcomes and focuses on the referendum itself.
United Nations resident representative, Gianluca Rampolla and Electoral Commissioner Patilias Gamato welcomed the report.
“The research will help us to look into the future, especially the stakeholders of the referendum,” Gamato said.
The institute’s council agreed to have the project in 2017 because of the importance of the Bougainville referendum where Bougainville will decide on its political future.
“It is an important event in the journey of Papua New Guinea’s development as well as for Bougainville,” Sanida said.
He said the referendum was part of the peace agreement struck between the leaders of PNG and Bougainville to end the civil war in the 1980s.