Wakias has H’lands sorted

By JAMES GUMUNO
SOUTHERN Highlands election manager David Wakias is confident of delivering a successful election in the province.
Wakias, 43, from East Sepik, is a longtime resident of Mendi town.
He made his way up from a casual officer in 2001.
He said that in the  2003 supplementary election, he was appointed assistant returning officer for the Lake Kopiago local level government.
In 2004, when the election manager’s position was vacant, he was appointed as a caretaker and when the position was advertised, he applied and was appointed.
“I successfully conducted the 2007 and 2012 national elections and I am confident about doing the same in this election,” Wakias told The National.
He said both elections saw election petitions but the courts struck them out.
He said there was speculation that his province was a high-risk area when it came to elections but he did not see it that way.
“In the past elections, when I came out to address concerns of the candidates openly, they all felt satisfied and the elections ran smoothly,” Wakias said.
“We are now giving the ownership of the elections back to the people, we only manage and facilitate the process in a transparent way for people to elect their leaders.”
Wakias said that 3240 polling officials were selected and placed in 648 teams. He said they gave responsibility to the people, if they destroyed ballot papers or boxes, they would not be issued new ones.
He said whatever given to them must be properly looked after and after casting their votes, they should bring them safely back to Mendi for safekeeping and counting.
Wakias said that they did not have extra ballot papers or boxes to be given out as replacements.