Papua New Guinea Electoral Commission

Electoral Commissioner Patilias Gamato has called on the Government Printer Christine Lenturut to lift the standard of printing at the Government Printing Office to an international standard. He was responding to a statement by Lenturut this week that the printing of ballot papers for the 2017 national election could have been handled by the Government Printer instead of giving the job overseas.

​The democracy of Papua New Guinea is not compromised. That is the assurance by the Electoral Commissioner Patilias Gamato when responding to comments by the former Government Printer Ken Kaia and current Government Printer Christine Lenturut in relation to the printing of the 10 million 2017 election ballot papers overseas in Indonesia instead of a local printer.

The 10 million ballot papers for the 2017 national general election will be printed overseas in neighboring Indonesia. Electoral Commissioner Patilias Gamato confirmed ​this week that this will be done for the first time in history mainly due to the exorbitant printing costs quoted by local PNG-based printing companies including the Government Printer which traditionally prints ballot papers for PNG elections.

International and regional observers of the 2017 national general election will be in the country early in February to do scoping for their election observations when polling begins on June 24. Electoral Commissioner Patilias Gamato this week signed off the invitations to four election observer groups to assemble their respective teams to observe PNG’s ninth national parliament general election.

Intending candidates for the 2017 national general election have been given an extension of one month to come forward and submit their bio-data by filling the candidate bio data form or Form 29. Electoral Commissioner Patilias Gamato made the decision this week to give intending candidates and political parties until February 28.

Electoral Commissioner Patilias Gamato has clearly outlined what he expects from his staff in the next three months prior to the issue of writs for the 2017 elections. He strongly urged staff from both the headquarters in Port Moresby and in the provinces to be more vigilant in performing their duties to deliver a good election to the people of PNG.