Four provinces have already completed polling while other provinces are yet to complete polling. So far, over 30% of LLGs have confirmed that polling is completed while others are nearing completion.
Electoral Commissioner, Mr. Simon Sinai has remarked that polling has progressed smoothly in most places with some experiencing delays due to security and logistical considerations.
In terms of regional assessment, the commissioner advised that in the New Guinea Islands region, the provinces of East New Britain and New Ireland have completed polling and will start counting tomorrow.
For the highlands region, Hela has completed polling and is currently in the process of counting, Southern Highlands has also completed polling and are now conducting the final extractions to Mendi for counting.
As for Enga, Mr. Sinai advised that there are some places that have completed polling while other districts such as Kandep are awaiting transportation for the ballot boxes to be extracted from the area.
As for Lagaip, some ballot boxes have yet to be deployed due to security issues. Aside from those provinces, Chimbu, Western Highlands and Jiwaka will poll on Friday.
“There was a message that went out earlier on social media by the ACP from the Western Zone, was not correct, and the EC has now confirmed that the 3 provinces will go into polling on the 15th of this month,” he said.
In terms of incidents, the commissioner stated that they were aware of the incident in the Moresby North-East electorate saying that it was unfortunate for it to have occurred.
“By some reports that I am receiving, some police were trying to disperse the crowd and that incident happened,” Sinai said.
He reiterated that in general the election is going well except for the roll issue that has been going on everywhere.