Police in the West New Britain Province are prepared to deliver a free, fair and safe 2022 National General Election, said Provincial Police Commander Chief Inspector John Iara. Mr Iara said the provincial command has in place policing strategies to provide the security overlay required by the PNG Electoral Commission and the people of West New Britain. Mr Iara commended Police Commissioner David Manning for trusting the various police commands to deliver the country’s 12th National General Election. After all, he said this is not new and the police together with its sister disciplined forces have delivered 11 national general elections for the country so far. Mr Iara said the provincial police command knows what its requirements are and have now gone into the pre-election phase of conducting election awareness to educate voters on election related offences as well as address general law and order issues as part of election preparation. “This helps gain the trust and gives confidence to the citizens,” Mr Iara said. He said his command has no problem with the new Nakanai District created recently by the National Parliament as a result of the increase in population. He said Police have gone along with the Provincial Electoral team to prepare the polling locations in the new district. However, police are yet to conduct awareness into parts of Kandrian-Gloucester District as they are still waiting for the election funding. The district is made up of inland islands mostly accessible by boats. He also stated that they are low on manpower and awaiting approval from the Police headquarters to use police reservists. The PPC said despite these challenges his men and women are fully aware of their roles and responsibilities during the election and are prepared to deliver. “We’ve done this before and we will do it again this year,” said a confident PPC Iara.