Police in the Northern Command say they have already put together an operation plan for the 2017 National Elections.
The polling will be made up of 500 officers. There will be additional support from Police’s mobile squad, the PNG Defence Force and Correctional Service officers. The additional support will form the quick response team.
Divisional Commander for Northern Region, Peter Guinness, says he will be sending a team from the Police Divisional Headquarters to visit the provincial police commanders, and the Metsupt next week.
The visit is to assist the PPCs and Metsupt to understand the operation order so that they can be able to prepare their supplementary operation orders.
Once this is done another meeting will be scheduled to finalise the operation plan.
The team will be going out to identify possible areas and locations where they will be accommodating the officers during the election period in the three provinces.
Guinness says the Northern command will be conducting a roll over election exercise.
This means that members of the RPNGC, together in each of the three provinces will combine their resources to assist one province carry out its election before moving onto assisting another province.
Guinness says the Northern command will also be swapping officers in each of the three provinces. This means officers in Madang will be in Eastern Highlands, while those in Eastern Highlands will be put in the other province.
Guinness says this is to avoid nepotism, and try to remain neutral in order to avoid any issues that may arise during the Election period.
