PM: Sorry for missing names

Main Stories

By STAFF REPORTERS
PRIME Minister James Marape has admitted that the common roll “was not adequately prepared” for the General Election 2022 (GE22), and apologised to those unable to cast their votes because their names were “missing”.
“The common roll was not adequately prepared. Our preparations and logistics were slow,” he said.
He suggested that everyone whose names were missing in the common roll, but had voted in 2017, or before, should be allowed to vote in GE22.
“We’ve advised the Electoral Commission that people, as long as they are adults and voted in 2017 or earlier, should be allowed their Section 50 right to vote (in GE22) for the candidate of their choice,” he said.
“No one should be turned away at the polls.”
Yesterday, Electoral Commissioner Simon Sinai directed election officials to use the online voter roll to check names if they were not on the common roll.
The voter roll is an online page on the Electoral Commission’s (EC) website.
It allows both first-time voters and those who had voted in the past to check if their names are on the GE22 roll.
“I am being advised by my technical staff that the electoral roll look-up is progressing,” he said.
“People yet to vote in provinces and villages can confirm where you will be able to cast your vote.”
Sinai said that Government funding on the updating of the common rolls was released only in November.
“I have admitted time after time that we were doing our utmost best to have (people) enrolled, but we ran out of time,” he said.
“(Funding) was only released to us in November 2021, so we had to push for the elections because it was a constitutional requirement.”
Election manager Kila Ralai said a Form 57 used in the past for those whose names were missing on the common roll was banned in GE22.
“Commissioner (Sinai) has not given the approval for us to use them in GE22,” he said.
Sinai yesterday thanked Indian High Commissioner Inbasekar Sundaramuthir and his government for providing indelible ink to be used during the GE22.