By Benson Wema
Papua New Guinea Electoral Commissioner Simon Sinai has strongly urged all Ward Councilors to take responsibility in ensuring the common rolls are fully updated with voters’ information before the 2025 Local Level Government Election and Parliament By- elections begin.
With issuing of writs and nominations to open on the 24th of April, Mr. Sinai outlined that the voters’ common roll has always been a key failure from past experiences and needs to be updated prior.
He highlighted some of the issues encountered which include; common rolls having ghost names, duplicated names of voters and false claims of names on the common roll.
Mr. Sinai has appealed to the Ward Councilors to help in correcting the system as his office in most cases is often labelled as corrupt for most of the outstanding issues with Elections in the country.
“Be real people, and we do the right things. Don’t expect the electoral commission to do things for you, but support the electoral commission to run the election, said Mr. Sinai
The Electoral Commission is considering having an established Identification system where voters’ information is recorded against their pictures to allow for proper validation during polling.
He also called out to intending candidates to respect the procedures of election and avoid manipulating their supporters and hijacking the process that causes disturbances to the process and leads to social issues.
Sinai is confident that if voters can be able to cooperate well with their community leaders and councilors, they will have a fair election.
“Let’s not waste people’s time, let’s get into business and play some common sense and run the election for the people,” Mr. Sinai urged all voters across the country.
While he expressed the concerned for councilors to step up, Mr. Sinai said Church groups and youths must also rise up and assist with community mobilization.
