PEC slams delay in issue of draft rolls

By JAMES APA GUMUNO
THE Western Highlands provincial executive council is concerned about the delay by the Electoral Commission in releasing the draft common roll for the province.
Deputy Governor Wai Rapa said yesterday the provincial government had allocated K1 million for the general election in the province.
However, he said they had been kept in dark about preparations by the provincial electoral office.
Rapa said unconfirmed reports said many eligible voters in the province had not been registered.
He said the people  were eager to check their names on the draft comroll in their districts.
He said many eligible voters were afraid they might not cast their votes because they did not know if their names were on the common roll.
Rapa said the people wanted to check if there was an increase in the common roll.
Any increase should not be more than 5% over the previous roll, he said, adding that any increase over 10% would be questioned because it proved that the common roll was inflated with ghost names.
He said this should be rectified at district level and sent back to the Electoral Commission’s office to change before issuing the final roll.