0710
Branch Updates on Enrolment Preparations as at October 3, 2016
Three enrolment pilot projects are currently in progress in three provinces – Kokopo district electorate in East New Britain, Alotau district in Milne Bay and Rigo district in Central Province – with elector data entry ongoing in the districts. Data Processing Officers (DPOs) have already been trained and are now doing data entry. Materials for the Roll Update exercise have already been dispatched last week.
By this week respective Provincial Election Managers will conduct training for their Returning Officers, Assistant Returning Officers and LLG Supervisors in preparation for the Roll Update Exercise.
Appoints of all the Returning Officers and Assistant Returning Officers have been confirmed on September 12, 2016.
No new appoints for ROs and AROs will be made unless death occurs as in the case of RO for Finschaffen district in Morobe province. A full listing of the ROs and AROs will be published in papers soon.
Meantime, six provinces have completed their second level of training on enrolment and they include East Sepik, Northern, West New Britain, East New Britain, Central and Milne Bay.
Enrolment nationwide should start on the third and fourth weeks of this month (October 2016). It is expected that by November 2016 all data collected in the districts should be sent from the field to Data Entry Centre in the respective Provincial Head Quarters for data entry to be done.
ICT BRANCH
Voter Enrollment Roll-out Update
The ICT Branch is purchasing all the necessary electronic equipment for the Roll Update and is installing them in all the Data Entry Centers in each PHQ. This equipment includes laptops, computers, scanners and printers.
For the rollout of the voter enrolment in the districts, LLGs and wards nationwide is expected to start on October 16, 2016. ICT is planning to start with East Sepik Province as they are ready and on schedule ahead of the other provinces and will conduct their third level of training which is for Enrolment Agents this week.
ICT is now purchasing all the necessary electronic equipment from two major vendors – Digitec and Datec - this week and will be them dispatching next week to the provinces for installation prior to the commencement of field work. Once installed training of Enrolment Agents will be conducted by the ICT Team on how to use the facilities.
HUMAN RESOURCE BRANCH
Recruitment Update
Returning Officers, Assistant Returning Officers, LLG Supervisors and casual employees have yet to sign their contracts. For Returning Officers, there were some duplicates identified and are being sorted out by the Policy Branch.
Provincial Election Managers have yet to confirm the number of Enrolment Agents nationwide. The confirmation of Enrolment Agents will depend on the completion of third level training which is for Enrolment Agents by each province. Once training has been completed then Provincial Election Managers will confirm their full listing and send it voter HRM at PNGEC HQ for processing.
For the recruitment of Data Enrolment Coordinator, Data Processing Operators (DPOs) and Checkers for all the 22 Provincial Data Centers nationwide, the ICT Branch will provide the listing to HRM once they complete training for DPOs.
Therefore, the total number of Temporary Electoral Workers (TEWs) could not be confirmed at this stage.
INFORMATION & COMMUNITY AWARENESS BRANCH
Awareness Update
Voter awareness and electoral/civic education is very important at this time as the country fast approaches the 2017 elections. Unfortunately, there’s not much information getting out to the people of Papua New Guinea at this crucial period of time mainly due to lack of financial resources for the ICA Branch to conduct its awareness activities.
At the moment there’s nil media awareness going on and what the ICA Branch is doing now is printing enrolment posters, brochures and pamphlets and dispatching them to the provinces. In the light of this, most provinces especially Provincial Election Steering Committees (PESCs) and Provincial Awareness Steering Committees (PASCs) are taking their own initiative to conduct awareness in their provinces.
ICA Branch still wants to engage the Civil Society Organizations network in awareness as they have been very effective in previous elections in conducting awareness by reaching out to the most remote parts of PNG were media awareness could not reach them.
ALPHONSE MUAPI
Media Consultant