The ballot papers among other election materials destined for the various Local Level Government (LLG) and ward council areas around the country, have started their journey to the various provinces and districts today with the assistance of the Australian Defense Force (ADF).
Papua New Guinea (PNG) Electoral Commissioner Mr. Simon Sinai said the first province to get the election materials from the flight out this morning is Western province.
Mr. Sinai said the PNG Electoral Commission is focusing on delivering all the election materials in just one week, but if there is a need to continue for another week, then the Commission will do so.
“All the ballots have been sorted by our teams and all sensitive materials including the electoral roll, plastic seals, polybags for counting, labels for ballots boxes and the ballot papers,” said Mr. Sinai.
The electoral commissioner also appealed to voters to take ownership of this election and go to the polls to mark a leader that would represent them in parliament, now that the PNGEC has started the distribution of the election materials.
He said there is no need for any form of violence as the election is a democratic process every five years for people to choose a leader of their choice.
Meanwhile, the man in charge of the ADF support for this election, Wing Commander Michael Rouhan, said they are here on the request of the PNG government and the extent of their involvement is to provide planning and logistics on air mobility to deliver the election materials to the provinces.
This air mobility will be made possible with the Royal Australian Airforce (RAAF) aircrafts that are currently in country, the C-130 Hercules, and the smaller C- 27 Spartan air crafts.
Wing Commander Rouhan added that there are 132 ADF personnel on ground that will be working with the PNG Defense Force transport the election materials.
This is our job, and we are very happy to come and help out,” said the Wing Commander.
There are two weeks left before the polling starts on the 04th of July and the transportation of the election materials early will ensure everything goes smoothly for voters and election officials come voting day.