The Secretary for the Constitutional Law Reform Commission, Dr Eric Kwa was on EMTV’s Your Vote 2017 program last night talking about issues arising from the National General Election.
One of the main issues was the Electoral Roll, with many eligible voters missing out on their constitutional right to vote.
He said it is these discrepancies in the Electoral Roll that needs to be cleansed and updated.
While Dr Kwa said it was unacceptable to be using the 2012 Preliminary Roll together with the updated one, he urged voters to go ahead and vote because the Elections must go on.
Dr Kwa said the constitution does not say anything about what is to happen to those eligible voters whose names are not on the roll. He said after these elections, the process needs to be fixed.
Dr Kwa said the Constitutional Law Reform Commission is now reviewing all the election petitions, looking at all the loopholes in the current Organic Law on the National and LLG Elections.
He said they are ready to talk to the Electoral Commissioner, Patilias Gamato after the elections to seriously look at all the gaps in the law and fix them.
He said the PNG Electoral Commission’s efforts in cleansing the roll in the last 12 months have failed.
Dr Kwa said after these elections, the Constitutional Law Reform Commission will approach the Electoral Commission to discuss linking the population census to the Electoral Roll.
