Polling officials came under fire tonight at Ward 7, Murray Barracks at the close of polling at 6pm when voters and scrutineers found out that 515 ballot papers were unused.
While many demanded to burn the left over ballot papers, a lone police officer and a few soldiers managed to calm the frustrated voters and scrutineers.
Some even verbally threatening the Presiding Officer, if she was to transport the unused ballot papers.
Presiding Officer Frieda Kila, a first timer in the role, explained that, the Electoral Roll for Zone 3 in Murray Barracks listed 825 voters in total.
The NCD Electoral Office issued 850 ballot papers to the polling site.
From the 825 voters on the Electoral Roll, only 334 voted.
One ballot paper was discarded when polling officials were immediately alerted that a lady had used someone else’s name to cast her vote.
Others were turned away because their names were not in the Electoral Roll.
Disappointed, that their names were not on the Electoral Roll and also the fear of the unused ballot papers falling into the wrong hands when being transported, they demanded for the left over ballot papers to be burnt.
The Presiding Officer made several calls to the Returning Officer and ARO for directions but the calls didn’t get through.
At around 7:40pm, the Presiding Officer finally got through to the ARO, who agreed with the scrutineers to mark all the unused ballot Papers with an X instead.
This resolved the suspicions and tensions.
Around 8:45pm, Police and the Electoral Commission Officials arrived with an open-back truck to transport the two ballot boxes.
Kila said she was directed to take the ballot boxes to Adcol, at Waigani.
For a first timer, she was pleased that the situation turned out well in the end.
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