24 Apr 2007

PNG electoral staff go back to work after commissioner clears up misunderstandings

7:30 pm on 24 April 2007

Electoral office staff in Papua New Guinea's Morobe province, who resigned en masse, have now returned to work.

They had claimed the electoral commission was not prepared for the June poll and that there had been no awareness campaigns in Morobe for the limited preferential voting, or LPV, system.

Nine returning officers in Morobe, the country's largest province, and 35 assistants, had resigned.

But our correspondent in Port Moresby, Alex Rheeney, says the electoral commissioner, Andrew Trawen, has put their concerns down to a misunderstanding.

"He said that the awareness on the LPV system, which was one of the reasons that the officers resigned, the awareness has always been ongoing and despite concerns by people, including some politicians about the electoral commission and how much work it has done, the commission is all set to go and as for the officers who resigned, they have returned to work."

Alex Rheeney reporting.