SHP records more than 2,000 informals

MANY ballot papers have been found informal as counting for the five electorates out of the six in Southern Highlands province continues at the central counting centre at Momei Oval in Mendi this week.
In the Nipa-Kutubu area, more than 1300 ballot papers for Toiwaro polling station were informal after the presiding officer signed the open candidate numbers on the regional candidate papers.
The Nipa-Kutubu electorate had 1755 informal votes after count 72 while there are less than 30 boxes remaining.
The other electorate, Kagua-Erave recorded 770 informal votes and 206 for Ialibu-Pangia.
The Imbonggu open electorate has the least number of informal ballot papers with only 11 so far after count 57.
Several scrutineers alleged that the high informal ballot papers turnover indicates that the presiding officers were not trained before going out to conduct polling.
They also claimed that the high turnover further indicated that new presiding officers were handpicked to conduct the election while boxes have also been hijacked.
A scrutineer for candidate Jimson Olpis said such high turnover was questionable whether polling were conducted freely or whether the papers were hijacked after certain polling officials were handpicked and not from the official list approved by electoral commission.
“This is a sign of last minute change to the list of presiding officers,” he said.
Meanwhile returning officer John Harisol said it was an indication that the president officers were incompetent, resulting in having many informal votes.
He said he would go ahead and count the regional papers as there was nothing wrong with the papers as they were marked properly.
He said he spoke to the electoral commission lawyers and he was satisfied that the papers were fine therefore he could go ahead to count the regional papers.