The West Sepik Province Electoral Office is making the final preparations for its teams to conduct the polling and counting by providing the final training to the election teams to cover the districts as it waits for the last lot of election materials to arrive by the end of this week.
The Provincial Election Manager Ms. Salote Kai confirmed that most of the election materials have already arrived in the province transported in with the assistance of the Australian Defence Force, but the last lot of things required by the election teams , which are the stationary items for the team members to use, are yet to arrive.
She said these items should be transported to the province by ship and should be in by this Friday before the election teams are sent out to the various district to prepare for polling.
Meanwhile, most of the election teams are ready for deployment to the four electorates to conduct polling come the 04th of July.
The provincial election manager said most of the teams are ready after completing training for polling and counting and should be sent out to the districts by this Saturday in preparation for polling next week Monday.
“The last lot of Assistant Returning Officers and elections teams should wrap up their trainings this week before they are deployed.”
Ms. Kai added that the final group are the teams for Nuku and Aitape- Lumi districts and they have started their two days training today with training conducted for the members at their respective district centers, while the teams to cover the Vanimo Green and Telefomin districts have already completed their training and are awaiting to be deployed out of the provincial capital, Vanimo.
She said once all the teams are ready, their deployment to the various polling sites should take place on the weekend.
“Some teams will be transported by plane to the districts only reachable by air and the other teams will go by vehicles to areas accessible by roads,” she said.
The provincial election manager added that so far it has been trouble- free in the province with no election related violence or incidents. She hopes things will remain this way until the whole 2022 National General Election completes.