Polling extended for LLG

KEREMA Urban Local Level Government (LLG) has been given another day for polling – tomorrow – following complaints of names missing in the common roll, an official says.
Gulf election manager and returning officer Poevare Tore confirmed the issue was raised with the electoral commission to use the 2017 common roll as a supplementary list to conduct polling.
“We received the approval after the Kerema Urban LLG polling was disrupted last week as many missed out on polling,” he said.
Tore said polling teams for the other nine LLGs were also issued the supplementary list from 2017 before they left.
“Up to date, the LLGs are using the 2022 common roll, but if names of voters are not found in that roll, they will use the 2017 so that there won’t be any more confusion.” he said.
Tore said the extended polling dates, especially for Kerema Urban, gave ample time for those who had missed out to cast their votes in a one-day polling approved by the provincial election steering committee.
“The committee has decided to conduct a day’s polling (today) to ensure all locals from the nine wards of the Urban LLG will gather at town’s basketball court where the polling station will be set up for the activity,” he said.
Tore said other LLG polling teams were almost done and was looking forward to the counting.
The only local level governments expected to complete polling by Friday are Kotidanga, Kaintiba and East and West Kikori LLG areas.

Kairuku ballots set for counting

KAIRUKU was the first of Central’s four electorates to transport their ballot boxes to the counting venue in Port Moresby, an official says.
Returning officer Henry Oa said 50 ballot boxes safely arrived at the counting centre in Murray Barracks on Monday afternoon.
“Twenty-five boxes are for the open seat and the other twenty-five are for the regional seat,” he said.
“These boxes are locked in a container and the container is in front of the Murray Barracks gymnasium.”
Oa said counting for Kairuku will commence on Thursday as Tuesday and Wednesday were days given to officials to prepare.
“On Tuesday, we had a brief, on Wednesday we will conduct training for the polling officials and on Thursday, counting for Kairuku will begin,” he said.
Oa said during the six days of polling, there were no reports of serious issues encountered.
“Many villagers missed out on voting and there were many complaints and arguments between them and the polling officials,” he said.
“There were no serious issues such as election-related violence, the Kairuku people had a calm polling.”
Oa said polling began in July 4 and ended on July 9.

Manus polling tomorrow, counting in ENB starts

POLLING in Manus commenced on Thursday and is expected to end next Thursday with counting of ballots starting on Monday, Commander Chief Insp Kiweri Kesambi says.
“We are giving time to all the polling teams to return to Lorengau before we start counting the ballots,” he said.
Kesambi said the counting venue for the two seats, Manus provincial and open, would be conducted at the Lorengau main market.
“Polling in the province had been quiet with no major incident,” he said.
“The only issue we faced was the names of many eligible voters were missing from the printed common roll.”
While giving the election updates in the province, Kesambi also urged everyone to respect the counting process and not cause disturbances.
Polling for all the four local level government areas of Balanataman, Kombiu, Watom Island and Rabaul urban in East New Britain were completed on Friday and the counting was scheduled for yesterday at the Malaguna Technical Secondary School hall.
Counting for Kokopo and East New Britain provincial seat also commenced yesterday, while counting for Gazelle is schedule for tomorrow.