Polling teams to go by foot

By EHEYUC SESERU
SOME polling teams for Menyamya in Morobe will be dropped off halfway by vehicles to walk with ballot boxes to polling sites.
Returning officer Nande Awape said there was a huge challenge provided by the rugged district in logistics and geography when it came to polling.
“Most areas of Menyamya are not connected by road,” he said.
“We will drop-off some teams with ballot boxes halfway and they’ll walk to reach polling venues.
“They will walk back to the drop-off site and be picked up after polling.”
Awape said the district had 51 teams for its four local level governments (LLGs) and 60 council wards.
“Eleven of the teams will be using the chopper to reach polling venues, and entirely depend on chopper for transportation,” he said.
“Four teams each from Kapao and the Kome LLGs, two from Wapi and one in Nanima-Kariba will use chopper as the only means of transport to and fro polling venues.
“Twenty-two ballot boxes will need to be airlifted by chopper due to rugged terrain the polling venues are situated in.”
Kapao has 15 wards with 10 teams, Nanima-Kariba (14 wards) 14 teams, Kome (16) 17 teams and Wapi LLG (15 wards) 10 polling teams.
Awape is appealing to people to support teams that would be walking.
“Election is everyone’s responsibility,” he said.
“Regardless of your social status, everyone must work together to deliver a fair and peaceful election.
“Villagers and anyone along the way must help officials.
“Become part of the government business (election) and work together. If the officials struggle with flooded rivers or slippery mountains, and their vehicles bogged, everyone must help them.
“Shops and those selling essential goods must not increase prices because of polling.”
Morobe election manager Simon Soheke said the officials have agreed to walk.
“Officials have agreed to walk, and we have discussed to give incentives to those who would be walking to conduct polling,” he said.

Returning officer expects counting for Huon-Gulf to be short

COUNTING for Huon-Gulf in the General Election 2022 is expected to be shorter than in previous elections, says returning officer David Wasinak.
Wasinak said a shorter time frame was expected given the arrangement that primary counts would be done in their respective local level governments.
He also said all five counting centres for the district would be stationed in Lae – four of which will be for each respective LLG and one for the central tally.
“So all ballot boxes will be brought into Lae but will be counted under their respective LLG compared to counting in past elections,” he said.
“Each LLG will conduct their own primary counts, then go through quality checks before the data is transferred to the central tally for elimination towards the Huon-Gulf Open seat.
“So I’m expecting this to be quick; for example Salamaua and Wampar Rural should conclude their counting in just two days because they have only eight boxes for the open seat.”
Wasinak said there were 86 ballot boxes in total, including both the open seat and regional seat; that’s 16 boxes for Morobe Patrol, 14 for Salamaua, 16 for Wampar Rural and 40 for Wampar Urban.
He said there were 30 candidates contesting the Huon-Gulf Open.

Teachers cleared to take part in elections, says official

By GLORIA BAUAI
MOROBE education adviser Keith Tangui says his office has not received an official list from the Electoral Commission for teachers to be engaged in the General Election 2022 (GE22).
He said the involvement of teachers and the use of school venues and facilities in this year’s electoral process had been endorsed by Education secretary Dr Uke Kombra.
“Electoral Commission wrote a letter to the Education Department requesting assistance in this capacity and the department secretary endorsed it, so there is nothing illegal about this,” he said. “Teachers have already been selected to participate; for Morobe, however, names of those teachers and how exactly they’re serving this election has not reached my office yet.
“I have advised our deputy provincial adviser (social services) Robin Bazinuc to write to the Morobe EC to provide this list for our benefit.”
Tangui warned that teachers not appointed by EC but have abandoned their teaching duties to do politics elsewhere in the GE22 would be dealt with accordingly.
“We will cut them off their pay immediately,” he said.
According to Tangui, a total of 23 teachers who had no genuine reason for missing school this year were identified and already put off payroll.
He said school venues that were used in the past and were registered with EC would definitely be used in GE22.
“Teachers have established relationships with the community where they teach in so they are usually the best choice as election officials,” he said.
“But it is still a very risky job, especially the role of returning officers and assistants so I appeal to EC to ensure that our teachers being involved are all trained and well versed to work under such pressure.”