THE Electoral Commissioner has condemned the actions of candidates and supporters that instigated the destruction of election materials; this is in relation to Markham and Kabwum in Morobe Province.
Ballot boxes and ballot papers were seen broken and burnt, scattered across the counting center; Papua New Guineans viewing the aftermath of the destruction through pictures on social media.
The question is who is to be blamed? The Electoral Commissioner, Simon Siani in a Media conference on Sunday (July 17) blamed “an aggrieved candidate” and his supporters for the destruction of the counting center in Markham.
The Electoral Commissioner has resorted to not taking some of the blame, stating that they are just facilitators of the electoral process and it’s the public that have to take ownership of the process and not resort to fighting and destroying the process, instead embracing it as an opportunity to express their democratic right.
“For the Electoral Commission I am satisfied and I am sure that I have done what I am supposed to do and what I am tasked to do as the election management body in the country, don’t blame the Electoral Commission that I have not done my work, the ballot boxes were bought to your door step, but people are fighting destroying ballot papers and ballot boxes what type message are we sending to the world,” Sinai said
The world is obviously seeing the destruction and chaos and will know of the violence through the many international observers and pictures and news on social media.
People are crying for a failed election but Sinai says that the process to declare the election in Markham and Kabwum as failed takes time and we could see the people go back to the polls.
“We are working together with Police and the security forces, at the end of the day the Electoral Commission is the Authority that will assess all the situations, where there is a need to have another polling we do that, if there needs to be counting we continue, but we will need a complete report from the officers in the provinces,” Sinai said
The Commissioner did consider some responsibility on their part stating that some of their tardiness could have caused a trigger to some of the actions by the public but says it’s a different demographic across the nation and people have a different approach towards elections.
“To some extent, there are contributing factors people are different, people going late to the polls or not having their names on the roll can trigger violence, but there are a host of different views and different understandings of how the people view the electoral process,” Sinai said
Sinai added that the process to declare a failed election in parts of Papua New Guinea is a process and will be made known once the writs are returned, Sinai also said the process includes meeting with their legal team as well to ensure that all processes are followed to make the hard decisions.
It is not only the Morobe Province experiencing a destruction of the democratic process, districts in Enga Province, Kompiam and Pogera have been facing issues which include the hijacking of ballot boxes and the destruction of property.
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