Poll officers identified

By MALUM NALU
THE appointment of returning officers and their assistants for the general election is expected to be sent to the Government Printer this week for printing and gazettal.
Electoral Commissioner Patilias Gamato told The National yesterday that the instrument for the appointments was ready.
“We are just waiting for the cheque and we’ll take it to the Government Printer,” Gamato said.
“Hopefully, the cheque should come out this week.”
Gamato said the appointments closed on Dec 31 and he had been reviewing them and making some changes.
He said recently, there had been some complaints about returning officers leaning towards political parties.
“There’ll be some minor changes to the appointment of returning officers and assistant returning officers,” Gamato said.
“We’ll keep those people who performed well so that they can serve as returning officers or assistant returning officers.
“There are also returning officers and assistant returning officers who have not performed well.
“Some of them are complacent and have tried to disrupt the process.
“Those are the ones who we will identify and put off.
“We will replace them with some capable officers.”