Bougainville's election challenge: one day of polling on 4 September
Photo:
Office of the Bougainville Electoral Commissioner - OBEC
This year's Bougainville election will be a single-day poll involving hundreds of workers across the autonomous Papua New Guinea region.
It's thought such a poll has not previously been attempted in Papua New Guinea.
The contest, on 4 September, will feature 408 candidates, including 34 women.
RNZ Pacific spoke with the Bougainville Electoral Commissioner, Desmond Tsianai, about the process and the challenge it presents.
(This transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity.)
Desmond Tsianai:
The model that we are using for this election is a one day model, one day polling model, and polling will actually be on the fourth of September.
Don Wiseman: So there'll be polling across the country for just one day?
DT:
Yes, exactly.
DW: Wow, that's a major logistic challenge for you.
DT:
Yes, that is true. We've taken all the necessary steps and planning to ensure that we cover all the polling sites and that all the polling sites have access to the closest or the nearest polling teams on the 4th of September.
DW: How many polling stations for an area spread like Bougainville has spread - you must have dozens and dozens and dozens?
DT:
Yes, that is correct. We have around 540 plus polling stations, therefore we'll have around 540 plus polling teams. And that is just for the resident Bougainvilleans.
We also have the out of constituency polling places, and that would be located in five provinces of the country. And that would be in Port Moresby, Morobe, East New Britain, Madang, Eastern Highlands Provinces.
Bougainville Electoral Commissioner Desmond Tsianai
Photo:
Facebook / Office of the Bougainville Electoral Commissioner-OBEC
DW: Now this one day polling hasn't been done before in Papua New Guinea, has it?
DT:
I would say so. We've tried one day polling in Bougainville, back in 2019 for the Bougainville Referendum. We saw that it worked, in a sense, and then we further trialled the one day polling model in a couple of by-elections leading into 2025 election.
So from 2019 to 2025, or between 2019 and 2025, we had a couple of by elections in which we trialed the one day polling, and then we saw that it sort of worked to our advantage.
In the process, we addressed some major issues in terms of transparency and to minimise the opportunity of the multiple voting by voters.
DW: So in terms of a general election covering an entire region, this is the first attempt of doing it in one day?
DT:
That is correct.
DW: You've got over 400 candidates. How many exactly?
DT:
408 to be exact.
DW: And how many women?
DT:
We also have reserved seats for women, and a total of 14 women candidates [will] contest for the reserve seats across north, south and central Bougainville.
Then we have, for the single member constituencies, a further 20 female candidates contesting for the open seat. So we have a total of 34 women contesting in this election.
DW: And that's a record as well. I imagine?
DT:
Yes, yes, that is correct.
DW: There were two women who won for the first time in open seats in the last election. Would you expect that to increase this year?
DT:
Well, the two women that contested in the 2020 election [have] nominated contesting in this election.
In terms of their chances of coming back, that's that's hugely dependent on the women themselves, and the performance over the five years, and whether people would want them to go back into government. But that's basically dependent on the performance of those members.
In terms of new women going into parliament, again, it's depending on the perspective of people, what the people think in terms of the previous government and what they would want [in] the next government in terms of women being members of the parliament, and what the women can deliver and contribute to the political aspirations of Bougainville.
DW: Now, one day of polling, as we say, and a lot of staff for you to organize. The counting process will take how long after that?
DT:
We have two weeks after polling to conduct the scrutiny of the ballot papers, accounting of the ballot papers, and to return the rates on the 22nd of September.
Counting will actually start on the 9th of September, and we were planning to finish counting on the 21st of September and return the rate to the speaker of parliament on the 22nd.
DW: And the counting will all happen in a central place?
DT:
Counting will be distributed along the three regional centres. For South it will be in Buin, Central in Arawa, in Buka we'll have two counting centres, and that is for the presidential seat and the single member constituency seats.
DW: Do you anticipate issues?
DT:
Well, in all elections, we encounter issues. But we're hoping that this time around, with the advanced scrutiny and candidate forum that we are conducting at the moment, to minimise issues during polling and counting and thereby having smooth polling and counting exercises.
DW: What about policing? Is there going to be additional policing?
DT:
Right now, the planning is to have the current police personnel available in Buka in Bougainville, stretched over South, Central and North Bougainville.
We'll use the current police personnel that we have, and we are collaborating with the chief of police, the Bougainville Police Service, to ensure that we have police personnel providing security and just making sure the environment is peaceful for people to go to poll especially to do the counting.
DW: And what about in terms of international observers? Are any coming in?
DT:
For the international observers, as you may know, the current political arrangement between Papua New Guinea and Bougainville. OBEC [Office of the Bougainville Electoral Commission] requests through the office of the president, who then requests through the PNG government to extend the invitation to observe the election.
However, we haven't been receiving any response from both parties, from the ABG and the PNG government, but we are hopeful that the PNG government would respond, extend the invitation to especially the international observers.
We do have interest from domestic observers, but we would very much want to have the international observers observe the elections this year.
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