The Commonwealth observer team monitoring Papua New Guinea's election is taking note of complaints about electoral roll flaws.
Midway through the two-week polling period, people of voting age in many electorates have found that their names are not on the roll.
The head of the observer team, Sir Anand Satyanand, told Johnny Blades who put it to him that PNG voters on social media have been urging observers to speak up about problems now.
The chair of the Commonwealth Observer team sent to monitor Papua New Guinea's 2017 election Sir Anand Satyanand.
Photo: RNZ / Johnny Blades
Transcript
ANAND SATYANAND: Well there have been a number of instances of people complaining that their names have not been on the roll. Some of this has been met by use of national identity numbers or in some cases with the 2012 roll being used (instead of the latest version). So that's how the roll issue has played out to date. It’ll be a matter of scale of examining in a week's time how many more, if any, instances of roll problems there are. As to ballot boxes, the observers were briefed about the production and delivery of many thousands of boxes to the polling officials. We've seen them in use with their naming and numbering details on the outside. The scrutinizers play quite a significant role in this process, and the police have had a high visibility of watching everything take place, and they're responsible for the transport and security of the polling materials
JOHNNY BLADES: There's sometimes the thought that in an election observer team, no matter how well-intentioned and how well experienced and so forth, it might be seen if an election is unfair, it might be seen to have endorsed that sort of process. Isn't that a danger here?
SA: That is a possible danger and it is something that could be said. However on the other side is the matter that all these people are experienced electoral process observers who are very used to talking to all sorts of people. There's a line between what the government does and the Electoral Commission provides, and - on the other side - the observer groups. But our group there is to observe, not to be responsible for the conduct of the election. And people it seems are very forthcoming in asking questions and making their views known to our people. I've received reports of the experiences of many of our observers in parts of the country.
JB: The timing of your team's eventual report, that's obviously quite a bit after counting, what effect can it have if there is already an unfair election's result in play?
SA: It won't be very long after the counting and it will be in a form that the government will be advised of the things that a team has seen and shortcomings, if any, will be identified and recommendations made. It's a pretty well-worn path with a track record of having been done in a number of countries over the years. And that's the role: to observe and make independent assessments and recommendations about shortcomings.
To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following:
See terms of use.
