Police in West New Britain Province have already started their preparations for the upcoming National General Elections and WNB PPC Chief Inspector Januarius Vosivai stated that the pre election operations will kick off in a weeks’ time under the supervision of the incoming WNB PPC, Senior Inspector John Yara.
Inspector Vosivai said much of the planning and pre election operation will be done under the leadership of the new PPC Snr Inspector John Yara stating that the first pre-election operation will be focused on community engagement whereby police will be carrying out election awareness to all communities.
However Inspector Vosivai also highlighted that manpower is the only major issue currently faced by police in West New Britain Province.
“We have enough vehicles to move around and funding will not be a problem but we cannot fully deliver and be everywhere at the same time because of the less number of police personnel we have on the ground and that is a worry,” said Inspector Vosivai.
Inspector Vosivai said with the National General Elections coming up, the police force will need more men on the ground to carry out operations both on the mainland and the islands.
“Currently we have only 129 regular police personals and 36mobile squadron on the ground and that is not enough,” he said.
He mentioned that a request for additional manpower has been sent out already and they are expecting extra police personnel to arrive in Kimbe before the pre election operations kick start.
“We need around 350 national security personals to come in and boost our team and if we can get this number then it will definitely help with our security operations during elections throughout the province,” said Inspector Vosivai.