The return of the Writ for the Bougainville Regional Seat to the Governor General on Tuesday marked the end of the by election; however, the same cannot be said about the payment of the services provided to achieve a successful by election.
According to the Acting Papua New Guinea Electoral (PNGEC) Commissioner Mr. Simon Sinai, this was due to the insufficient budget allocated for the by election.
He said the PNGEC requested for K15million to cover for the three electorates.
The K15million divided into the three electorates will see about K5million spent for each electorate conducting the by election.
“Unfortunately, we were only given eight million, so we worked with that and we are expecting some funds to come complete the logistics part of it and some outstanding allowances.”
Mr. Sinai added that Bougainville is no easy region to run elections as people may think.
A lot of logistical arrangement were made to conduct the by election in the three electorates.
For instance, in North Bougainville where the atolls make up the 14 Constituencies, a big ship was engaged to better reach the many atolls than the small boats.
“We hired a bigger ship from out of Lae, so it serviced the Northern part of Bougainville.”
“The same was also experienced for South and Central Bougainville where a lot of logistical support was engaged to get the teams in and out of the polling areas.”
However, despite the challenges the Acting PNG Electoral Commissioner said the by election was done successfully.
In fact, the by election was concluded ahead of its scheduled time.
“We issued the Writ on the 3rd of December (2020) and to return the Writ on the 19th (February 2021)which is supposed to be at the end of this week. But it is satisfaction to the electoral commission that we have conducted the elections as early as possible and within time to return the Writ on the 16th (February 2021).”
Meanwhile, the Writ was returned to the Governor General at the Government House in Port Moresby, where it was witnessed by the officers of the PNGEC and the new Bougainville Provincial Member elect, Peter Tsiamalili Junior.
