Pacific

Call to respect election process in PNG

09:40 am on 12 July 2017

A member of the Papua New Guinea electoral committee which has resigned midway through the current election says official processes need to be respected.

Polling area at University of PNG campus in Port Moresby during Papua New Guinea's 2017 election. Photo: Loop PNG

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The Electoral Advisory Committee's three members resigned on Monday, only a month into their job, as the election moved into vote counting around PNG.

Its three members said the Electoral Commission has not allowed them access to basic data and regular reports they require to perform their assessment of the election.

One of the members, Richard Kassman, said the decision to resign came after careful thought

"We need to, as a country, ensure process and the committee individually and collectively though we could add to that process. As soon as we felt that we couldn't continue to add value for various reasons, including the flow of information, we felt it was important that we protected the integrity of that committee."