by Fabian Hakalits – EM TV, Port Moresby
The race has begun as Bougainville enters into the scrutinizing process of ballots, for the 3rd Autonomous Bougainville Government General Election.
Bougainville’s Acting Electoral Commissioner, George Manu, in a telephone interview, told EM TV News from Buka, that counting will be held in three locations in the autonomous region and continue for the next thirteen days.
“For the North Region, the counting centre will be at Hutjena secondary school hall. For Central, it will be at the Sharp Memorial Centre in Arawa and for South it will be at the United Church in Buin. The North Region counting centre will have two operations under one roof. One team will be conducting the scrutiny for the region’s constituency, women and former combatants, while another team will be conducting the scrutiny for president.
The first step of scrutiny at three regional counting centres, is to identify ballots, mistakenly deposited into the wrong ballot box. Once completed scrutiny of preferences will commence.
Counting for presidential ballot papers will be delayed to later this week.
As part of the commitment to full transparency, Mr Manu appealed to all scrutineers and international and domestic observers to witness the counting process from beginning to end.
Information on the counting can be found online: Office of the Bougainville Electoral Commissioner: www.obec.gov.pg.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=RNDELnh5KN4%3Ffeature%3Doembed%26wmode%3Dopaque%26showinfo%3D0%26showsearch%3D0%26rel%3D0
