Voters not on roll told to prepare for 2017

 By ABIGAIL APINA

INTENDING voters should get ready for the next elections in 2017 rather than complaining now, New Ireland returning officer Alwyn Jimmy said last Thursday in Kavieng.

Jimmy made the comment after receiving complaints from eligible voters in the province who were turned away from polling booth.

He said according to the organic law, it was the responsibility of eligible voters to enrol and not wait for Electoral Commission teams in each province to go into the wards and collect names.

Jimmy said many awareness activities were conducted in the province urging people to come forward with their names but the people had not taken those campaigns seriously.

“This is not the time to complain, it is time to vote. We have conducted awareness in the province,” he said. 

“The turn-up of the people was poor and now they are complaining about their names not being on the roll.”

Jimmy said despite the complaints, polling continued and was peaceful in the province.

He said no declarations had been made but they were expected to begin today and tomorrow when all teams returned to their respective LLGs to start the counting of votes.

Jimmy said there were 126 candidates for the 10 LLG president seats in the province, while 866 candidates were running for ward council seats.

He said 36 of the 992 candidates were women.