Yanggoru-Saussia MP and People First Party Leader Richard Maru has called on the Electoral Commission on how it will deal with the issue of eligible voters who will miss out on voting because they are not registered on the common roll.
Mr Maru made this call during the signing of the Code of Conduct agreement between the 39 registered political parties and the Electoral Commission in Port Moresby yesterday.
He said while the responsibility to ensure a safe and successful elections outcome lies with the parties, the Electoral Commission haven’t fully learnt from the past mistakes to fix this issue.
“The Electoral Commission must not repeat the mistakes from the past elections,” Mr Maru said.
“With the recent common roll update, many people are not enrolled.”
“You have to have a clear stand on how you will deal with a large number of voters who are not going to vote because their name are not on the common roll.”
He said this is not an issue that political parties will have to manage and the Electoral Commission need to be clear on how they will address this issue so that other stakeholders can do their part in safeguarding the elections.
Deputy Electoral Commissioner John Kalamoroh in response said voters are responsible to have their names enrolled when the Electoral Commission sent out enrolment officers to enrol and they have to play their part as well in ensuring they have they names enrolled.
Mr Maru also pointed out concerns on the security of the elections as well as the efficiency of the CCTV initiative that the Electoral Commission had said to establish in counting venues.