Madang officers ready for election

Madang returning officers will take a tough stand in this election to avoid allegations of hijacking paper ballots.
The returning officers and their assistants represented by election manager and provincial returning officer Peter Yasaro took the stance yesterday.
Yasaro, who served in Morobe in the 2012 general elections as provincial election coordinator, said Madang tended to somehow find marked ballot papers or ballot paper butts at certain locations and that often started a long court battle.
He said his current team would be focusing on the issue and would block all avenues to have the ballot papers made available for such frauds.
Yasaro said he would make sure all ballot paper butts containing their serial numbers would be held back for safe keeping before he issued the actual ballot papers to various returning officers and assistants for polling.
“He said all returning officers and their assistants were public servants and he expected them to perform their electoral duties with honesty to avoid foul play. The updated copy of the common roll for Madang and the rest of the country would be printed on Thursday.
He said Madang had 451 ward areas where polling would take place, with 689 selected polling places and polling would be conducted within 31 days.
Yasaro said 136 polling teams would be selected with five members per team to work under the supervision of six returning officers and 19 assistant returning officers and him as the provincial returning officer.