The electoral commission in Vanuatu is trying its best to clear up some confusion with the voting process for tomorrow’s snap election.

Principal Electoral Officer Guilain Malessas said this is due to the tight turnaround to deliver this election after Parliament was dissolved last year.

The Vanuatu Electoral Office has confirmed that 52 seats, across 18 constituencies, will be contested by 217 candidates, seven of whom are women.

• READ MORE: Other Vanuatu election reports

But Malessas said against all odds, preparations were almost complete.

The final ballot boxes are being deployed to the farthest polling stations in the country and final checks are being carried out.

He said the premature dissolution of parliament last year forced them to have to deliver an election a year early, and within a two-month timeframe, as required in the constitution.

“The final challenge that remains is for us to make sure all the ballot boxes that we have deployed have reached all the polling stations safely,” he said.

“Also, there is the challenge of a new ballot structure which we have not had enough awareness on.”

He said they had not had enough time to conduct community awareness about the new system, and there was also new electoral legislation, which was passed in preparation for 2026 — the original date for the next election.

“With the new ballot structure you just have a single page with all the candidates and their symbols on it and you just have to tick the one you want,” Malessas said.

“We have not had enough awareness.

“We have used all existing social media platforms but lots of people in rural areas do not have access to these things.”

Extra training
Malessas said they had had extra training for polling station officials to help voters on Thursday, and had printed lots of informational material to be posted up at polling stations.

He said election candidates had also been conducting awareness during their political campaigns.

With the December 17 earthquake forcing the relocation of many polling stations, they were also anticipating people turning up with national ID cards at the wrong polling stations.

To manage this, they plan to verify that the person is a resident of the constituency and that their ID card was issued before the close of voter registrations for this election on 3 December 2024.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

The headline of this editorial, we believe, expresses what every eligible voter, business house and candidate in the nation’s capital feels towards the Electoral Commission of PNG.

To make a decision like this, the deferral of polling, at the very last minute on the day when this important event is to take place is absurd. it’s costly and creates an impression that our electoral process is dysfunctional in the eyes our citizens and the international community.

The explanation by the Election Manager for NCD (National Capital District), Kila Ralai, citing interference from candidates and their scrutineers on the deferral is very weak and doesn’t hold water.

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He was quoted as saying: “Unfortunately in that process there was interference, by the candidates and the scrutineers who came to over-rule the administration of the electoral process, that has prolonged the election operations.”

However, he goes on further and says: “We need to maintain our integrity, we need to maintain that integrity and the efficient process of the elections, so that we can deliver the elections to our voters.

“It is not good that we will push when the systems are not in place when the process is not prepared, we need to have all these before we conduct elections for NCD.”

Our question is: So what systems are not in place and whose job is it to prepare so that the integrity of the election is maintained?

The excuse made for the initial deferral from July 4-6 and now from 6th to maybe 8th of July is completely unacceptable.

And we endorse the sentiments of NCD Governor Powes Parkop and many other candidates who said: “Securing counting venues and preparing polling officials, ballot boxes and ballot papers are basic outcomes that the Chief Electoral Commissioner and his staff should have sorted out well before the 4th or 6th of July.

“These are basic issues they ought to have templates and be experts in these areas by now.

This basic failure shows the highest level of incompetency and someone should be brought to account for this level of incompetency which is bordering on stupidity.”

This basic failure shows poor level of leadership, poor planning and total incompetency on the part of Chief Electoral Commissioner and his officers.

They ought to hang their heads in shame!

For our capital city to be continuously subjected to such basic problems is totally unacceptable! It reflects badly on the Electoral Commission, our capital city and our country.

The Electoral Commission had four years and then a number of weeks due to deferral of the Issue of Writs and then two more days and they are still unprepared.

PNG Post-Courier. Republished with permission.

Papua New Guinea went to the polls yesterday to begin electing the 11th national Parliament only to find out that there were names missing on the common roll while some polling stations were short of ballot papers around the country.

The distribution of ballot papers and the common roll update has been an issue over the past few months with the Electoral Commission continuing to provide assurance. But this was not the case yesterday.

In Lae, former four-term Lae MP Bart Philemon was turned away at his Butibam village polling booth because his name was not on the common roll.

• READ MORE: PNG elections and the economy: Marape vs O’Neill
• Other PNG election reports

Stefan Armbruster reports from Tari on the opening day of the PNG election.
Video: SBS News

“If this can happen in an urban village in Lae city, how can we be sure if people living in the vast remote areas around the country are casting their votes?,” he asked.

“Are they or will they exercise their fundamental democratic right which comes only after 5-years?”

Reports from other centres around the country included East New Britain, Central, Northern, Hela and Morobe provinces also facing the same issues yesterday.

Several locations in Central Province, voters had to argue with polling officials because their names were not on the common roll and these were the voters who had voted in the 2017 general election.

Central provincial police commander Superintendent John Midi confirmed that several commotions between voters and election officers had been reported at various locations in Hiri Koiari electorate.

Voting is underway in #PNG. @StefArmbruster is on the ground – covering his 3rd lot of elections. Bringing context & insight https://t.co/AKuXNW0OPK @GAIGriffith @SBSNews

— Dr Tess Newton Cain (@CainTess) July 4, 2022

‘Explain for peace’
“It is to due to ballot papers and voters which only the PNG Electoral Commission officials assigned to these areas have the powers to explain for peace among people during polling,” Superintendent Midi said.

Meanwhile, Philemon said the Electoral Commission had five years to update the common roll and to ensure that all eligible citizens were listed but it had failed the people of this country.

“I fail to understand the Electoral Commission failing its primary responsibility to update the roll,” he said.

The former MP said the Electoral Commission cannot in uncertain terms deny the fundamental democratic rights of its citizens to elect their leaders which falls every five years.

Philemon said the incompetency of public servants in the government workforce was a contributing factor not only to elections but other issues affecting health, education, transport infrastructure, law and order as well.

Frank Rai is a PNG Post-Courier reporter. Republished with permission.

Voters will elect 118 members of parliament, including governors of the 22 provinces, from the 3,600-plus candidates nominated. https://t.co/9KrQ6tqIlF

— RNZ Pacific (@RNZPacific) July 4, 2022

A three-member polling team has told of how they had to walk for hours carrying two ballot boxes, crossing 11 rivers and sleeping at a village to accomplish their task in Papua New Guinea’s general election.

Polling Team 52 was led by presiding officer Eric Inamuga and included polling official Joe Bais and police officer Fred Rimbao.

They were in charge of the 572 marked ballot papers for the Goroka Open electorate in the Highlands.

They were sent to remote Wessan in the Goroka electorate on the border of Eastern Highlands and Madang.

Inamuga said they travelled on Monday by helicopter to Wessan but could not land because the pilot was unable to identify the site.

“We returned to Goroka and made the second trip to Wessan the next day. We were dropped off at the Simili polling station to conduct polling there,” Inamuga told The National daily newspaper.

“We finished around 3 pm and waited for pick-up. The helicopter did not return so we spent the night with the locals at Wessan.”

They waited for pick-up until 1.30pm on Wednesday and decided to walk to Madang to catch transport to Goroka.

“We crossed 11 fast-flowing rivers, including the Ramu River. The water came up to our chest and neck.

“We braved through and managed to get to Kesevai along the Madang Highway about 6.30pm. A police team and an official election vehicle picked us up at 7pm on Wednesday.”

Police officer Rimbao said they had to spend around K120 (about $52) for accommodation, meals and other incidentals to do their election job.

Loop PNG reports today nearly three-quarters of Papua New Guineans have started voted, according to the PNG Electoral Commission. The rest will vote within the 14-day ballot period.

Port Moresby voters in the National Capital District (NCD) began their one-day polling today after the postponement from Tuesday.

• More PNG election stories