Roll to be investigated

By GYNNIE KERO
PRIME Minister Peter O’Neill says an investigation will be conducted at the Electoral Commission to find out why the names of some voters are missing from the Common Roll.
O’Neill said it was disappointing because district and provincial officials had submitted the information on voters to the Electoral Commission head office in Port Moresby.
“My appeal to the commissioner (Patilias Gamato) is to allow people to use both the updated and preliminary rolls to ensure every citizen is given the opportunity to vote,” O’Neill said.
“I’m certain that every Papua New Guinean who have voted in the past will have their records in the Common Roll.
“Preliminary rolls taken by provincial and district officials seem to be in order according to our assessment. But the amendments made at the headquarters (electoral commission) are causing some difficulties.
“Records have gone down to Port Moresby. We need to establish what happened. I will be calling on the electoral commissioner to institute an investigation within the data room area, why the common rolls continue to change.
“People don’t just disappear from the common roll as such and we need to get to the bottom of this.”
Gamato said yesterday the commission would after everything was over conduct several tasks to resolve the issue faced in this election especially on the roll.
“A task force will be instituted after the election with a primary responsibility of conducting a forensic assessment of all voters roll,” he said.
“They will follow necessary steps to initiate an active registration process in which all eligible citizens are eligibly obliged to make a claim for inclusion of their names on the electoral roll.”