1. 2020 BOUGAINVILE GENERAL ELECTION SCHEDULE

2.THE Bougainville Electoral Commissioner, Mr George Manu has announced the appointment of returning officers (ROs) and assistant returning officers (AROs) for the 2020 Bougainville General Election

3 WORK on updating the electoral roll for the 2020 Bougainville General Election is currently underway in Bougainville. 

Issue of Writs Wednesday 17 June 2020

Nominations Open Thursday 18 June 2020

Nominations Close Tuesday 23 June 2020

Polling Starts Wednesday 12 August 2020

Polling Ends Tuesday 1 September 2020

Counting Starts Wednesday 2 September 2020

Counting Ends Monday 14 September 2020

Return of Writs Tuesday 15 September 2020

2.THE Bougainville Electoral Commissioner, Mr George Manu has announced the appointment of returning officers (ROs) and assistant returning officers (AROs) for the 2020 Bougainville General Election.

“I am pleased to announce that the ROs and AROs for this election have already been appointed and gazetted. These officers now have the responsibility of ensuring that our preparations are going as planned before the commencement of upcoming electoral activities like the issue of writs, nominations, polling and counting.”

The ROs are Peter Wanga who will be responsible for the presidential seat, Marceline Kearei (north regional women and former combatant seats), Dennis Palipal (central regional women and former combatant seats) and Chris Toke (south regional women and former combatant seats).

The AROs for the fourteen constituencies in North Bougainville include Moses Kivaroy (Atolls constituency), Marceline Butu (Nissan constituency), Brian Kimana (Tsitalato and Hagogohe constituencies), Lawrence Sabin (Halia and Haku constituencies), Wency Saliib (Peit and Tonsu constituencies), George Geobun (Mahari and Teua constituencies), Benny Primus (Selau and Suir constituencies) and Daniel Tokapip (Taonita Teop and Taonita Tinputz constituencies).

The AROs for the eight constituencies in Central Bougainville are Martin Avoata (Rau and Terra constituencies), Wendell Tiotorau (Ioro and Eivo/Torau constituencies), Peter Onabui (Kongara and South Nasioi constituencies) and Gideon Taruna (North Nasioi and Kokoda constituencies).

The AROs responsible for the eleven constituencies in South Bougainville are Benjamin Sinala (Bolave constituency), Joe Nara (Lato and Baba constituencies), John Tsiaka (Motuna/Huyono/Tokunutui constituency), Peter Uniu (Kopii and Ramu constituencies), Michael Lobinau (Makis and Baubake constituencies), Joe Kinani (Lule constituency), Justin Kengkua (Konnou constituency) and Mark Sio (Torokina constituency).

Mr Manu said these officers have a great wealth of experience in the field of conducting elections, before adding that he has trust and confidence that they will play a pivotal role in conducting and delivering a peaceful and successful election this year.

“These are experienced officers and I have confidence in each of them. If you have any query or would like more information on the conduct of this year’s election, you can go and consult your respective RO or ARO.”

The first activity that these officers are currently supervising is the updating of the names of all eligible voters throughout the 33 constituencies in Bougainville.

“Right now they have a big responsibility to update the names of all eligible voters in their constituencies. This exercise is very important as it will determine who will be able to cast their votes during polling. However, I am confident that these officers together with the ward recorders of respective wards in Bougainville will do a good job.”

3. WORK on updating the electoral roll for the 2020 Bougainville General Election is currently underway in Bougainville.

According to the Bougainville Electoral Commissioner Mr George Manu, the roll display and registration of eligible voters has already been completed in most of the 33 constituencies in the region.

“As of today, most of the assistant returning officers have already returned their field work data to either our head office in Buka or through our regional offices in Arawa and Buin towns.”

The roll display and registration of new eligible voters was done by the ward recorders of respective ward assemblies in Bougainville.

The ward recorders had used the 2019 Bougainville Referendum Roll as the working roll to update the electoral roll that will be used in this year’s ABG election.

Upon receiving the field works, the assistant returning officers (AROs) of the respective constituencies will do quality checks on them to ensure that ward recorders have thoroughly done their tasks in registering and updating the list of voters.

The entering of these data will commence shortly after the completion of the quality checks.

“Once quality check is complete we will then proceed with the data entry exercise. This is the time where the data processing officers will be either entering the names of the new voters, deleting the names of those that are not supposed to be on the roll or editing the details of those that may have not been entered correctly on the working roll.”

“The entering of data from North Bougainville will be done in Buka while for Central it will be done in Arawa. For the constituencies in South Bougainville, their data entry will take place at our south regional office in Buin town.”

Once this exercise is complete, all data from south and central Bougainville will be transferred to Buka for collation and compilation of all data into one roll.

The final roll that will be used in the upcoming Bougainville election should be ready for gazettement shortly after the Issue of Writs on the 17th of June this year.

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