No forward march on elections

THE political impasse has passed.
It is time to get on with the real important business of government to prepare this nation for the 2012 election.
Prime Minister Peter O’Neill yesterday made a throwaway comment that he would have liked to bring the election forward but the Electoral Commission of Papua New Guinea is not ready.
That is a very revealing comment from the head of government:  Just how “not ready” is the PNGEC?
Electoral Commissioner Andrew Trawen has had five years – between the last election in 2007 and
today – to prepare for nothing other than this next major event.
This was the next most important event on the PNGEC calendar.
We must now hear from Trawen what has been completed and what remains to be done.
Is the common roll updated?
Are the new electoral boundaries for Jiwaka and Hela drawn up?
How does it propose to distinguish the regional ballot paper from the reserved women’s seat ballot, assuming the Equality and Participation Bill is passed into law by parliament this week?
What about security and election fraud issues?
Is the funding given it in next year’s budget sufficient to do what work is remaining before the general election?
These are issues that the PNGEC must now let citizens of Papua New Guinea know and quickly.
Elections in Papua New Guinea are getting increasingly difficult to run and particularly to keep honest.
Election fraud has been a growing problem as can be seen by the number of court of disputed returns filed after each national general election.
Violence is widespread and is a particular menace in the seven highlands provinces namely Eastern Highlands, Chimbu, Jiwaka, Western Highlands, Enga, Southern Highlands and Hela.
With the proliferation of guns throughout the country and especially in the highlands, each election brings increased dangers to candidates and their supporters, to election officials and other government workers.
Next year will see an increase in all these problems, not the least because the position of a member of parliament has suddenly become ever more attractive.
Where once the glamour of becoming a member of parliament was position and power, it has now become the road to controlling many millions of kina.
It is the road to instant riches.
Each member in the current parliament would have had pass through his hands almost K22 million in the last four years.
There are others who have had a say on the use of between K100 million and K200 million in their districts.
This is money that was never available to a single member of parliament.
Yes, they will rise up and claim that the money is sent to their district treasuries, but at the end of the day, they head the district planning and budget priorities committee as chairmen.
Many members of parliament are signatories to the cheque books of their districts.
Those currently in office are going to fight tooth and nail to remain in power.
They have the resources to back them up.
Candidates who come in from outside would desperately want to get into power and the wealth that the position of a parliamentarian provides.
They will have doubled the incentive.
Desperate people will employ desperate means and so this will mean double or triple the fraudulent activity and the violence that we have seen in previous elections.
The danger to all concerned and to the electoral commission workers is going to be acute.
If the PNG Electoral Commission is not well prepared, if mistakes are detected or alleged during the election, it can mean endangering the lives of election workers.
Education of the masses on issues pertaining to the elections and any new changes such as the reserved seats is, therefore, extremely important and should already be happening.
There is so much that is looking up for Papua New Guinea at the moment with all the big money projects starting up but an election gone wrong can remove all of that.
That is how important the 2012 general election is going to be.