Voters say missing names is recipe for poll disaster

Story by ELIAS LARI
ELECTION in Western Highlands may turn ugly if eligible voters find out that their names are not on the common roll.
A group of people gathered outside the provincial electoral office in Mt Hagen last Thursday demanding answers on the missing names of eligible voters.
Hagen district alone has 48 council wards – 40 rural and eight urban.
Out of that, they claimed that only 250 enrolment forms were given out to each council ward.
It means that only 250 people will be registered in each council ward while others miss out.
They expected to be given 400 to 500 forms in each council ward.
They are worried about young people just turning 18 and those from other districts married to people in Hagen missing out on voting.
They said this could also affect the LLG elections.
Responding to their queries, Andrew Kerowa, the common roll update supervisor for Hagen rural and urban, said they were only doing an update of the 2007 enrolment.
Kerowa said the 250 enrolment forms were given to every council ward nationwide. It did not matter whether the ward was big or small.
He said the direction came from the Electoral Commission head office.
Kerowa said people must understand that Hagen central had 48 council wards.
Multiply that by 250 and it comes to a total of 12,800 new enrolments. They cannot go beyond or less.
He said it was happening throughout the country and not only in Western Highlands.