Trawen thanks combined army forces for help

ELECTORAL Commissioner Andrew Trawen thanked and bade farewell to the Australian and New Zealand Defence Forces for providing logistics support for the 2012 general election operations.
Trawen was speaking at a gathering at the Air Transport Wing at 8-Mile, Port Moresby.
“I am especially grateful for all the work that has been done by the Australian Black Hawk pilots, air crew and ground staff who have functioned here at ATW and the New Zealand Iroquois team all of which functioned out of Tufi, Northern province.”
Trawen said the assistance was unpre­cedented.
“With political uncertainty, the special circumstances and significant pressures on me to defer the elections, this was a time when I needed high quality support – you all provided that and it assisted me to say we were ready to conduct the elections,” he said.
Trawen, who has been a career officer with the Electoral Commission since the 1970s, said conducting election was always a huge task and it is always important to get it right.
He said that required team effort and the Electoral Commission relied on support and assistance from many government departments too.
These government departments included police, defence, correctional services, departments of prime minister and NEC, treasury, finance and education and many others.