Maru wants NID fast-tracked

National Planning and Monitoring Minister Richard Maru, pictured, wants to see the PNG National Identification (NID) project fast-tracked so that voters can use the ID in the 2022 general election.
Speaking in Port Moresby on Friday, he said: “The whole country needs to have the NID.
“My plan is for those who don’t have an ID won’t vote in the next election.
“I just came out from an election, many people voted multiple times and we need to clean this mess.
“I will be talking to the electoral commissioner (Patilias Gamato) on how information captured on the data will be used for election.
“We need value out of this multi-million kina project.”
Maru was concerned that K250 million had been expended on the project to date, with only 300,00 cards issued.
“Former electoral commissioner late Sir Andrew Trawen had often emphasised that the way forward for elections in the country if we were serious about improving the election outcomes was by improving the electoral processes and systems,” Maru said.
He urged the commission to undertake biometric enrolment for eligible voters and conduct polling using electronic voting.