Transcript
KERENGA KUA: The main point to be made is that we have not used one standard common roll for the entire country. Some people used common rolls that have been settled five years ago; some have used those that have been settled two, three years ago; and some used those settled at different times in the course of this year. That's the inconsistency that is incredible, because they were supposed to carry out one common exercise for the whole country. This leads me to your other point about inflations and deflations of names on the common roll - that appears to be also deployed by PNC members of parliament and with the collaboration of Electoral staff to inflate common rolls in their stronghold areas and deflate the common roll in their weak area. So for example whatever they deflate in one place, they inflate in another area, they take that number and they inflate their stronghold, so that the aggregate remains the same, but the actual break-up, the voting base here and there, that's the second thing they've done. That's what they've done in my electorate. We discovered it and we pointed out and we applied sufficient pressure on the commissioner (on the eve of polling) to revert back to a different common roll that was agreeable to all the candidates, and that's what we've used, and that's an example of how we've used a different common roll, whereas other parts of the country have used a different common roll settled at a different time under different criteria.
The other big glaring mistake or fraud about this election is that the Electoral Commission has printed a lot of extra ballot papers and distributed into the hands of PNC members of parliament and their candidates. And it's been left up to them to find a way to insert it into the polling system, into the electoral system. So a lot of them have been able to insert it, using illegal means to insert those extra ballot papers, they mark it themselves fraudulently and then find a way to insert it. And lot of them have also failed because the vigilance maintained by the other candidates is so tough that they find it hard to insert the extra ballot papers into the formal process.
JOHNNY BLADES: That's quite a serious issue. Is there evidence of that?
KK: There is evidence, and at the moment it's scattered all over the country, and I wouldn't make these sort of comments lightly. We put it to the Electoral Commissioner to give us an audited statement about the total number of ballot papers printed. From previous information made available from the Electoral Commissioner, there were a lot of extra ballot papers. So we've asked for an audit as to why that is so, and what has happened to the differences between the actual print as per the total number of names registered on the national common roll and the extra ballot papers over and above that. What has happened to them? Where has it gone to? Why have you printed it in the first place? All these questions up to now remain to be answered.
In the case of Tari-Pori in Hela province, they had a lot of ballot papers that exceeded... the total votes exceeded the total names in their common roll. How can that be? Because in the first place the ballot papers were distributed in accordance with the total number of names in each electorate's common roll. So if Tari-Pori had a total of 50-thousand voters in the common roll, then they received 50 (thousand papers) plus maybe a few hundred for informalities and all that, you know as a back up. But you can't get thousands of extra ballot papers for Tari-Pori. So how is it that in the final count the total number of votes cast and counted is far in excess of the names on the common roll. That highlights the fact that there are extra ballot papers that have been floated out, voted on and somehow counted.
JB: Do you think it's been widespread, that problem, in PNG?
KK: I imagine so, I imagine so. I would venture out to say that that was a national strategy developed by PNC and the Electoral Commission is right in the thick of it in its implementation.
The Electoral Commissioner knows a lot more than he's letting on. And I believe that unless he comes out with clear answers as to the total number of ballot papers printed, and how those extra ballots have been accounted for, etc, I will say - as a national leader here in this country - that he is complicit in the whole design and implementation of this fraud.
JB: And he has been asked about this by the media. We've asked him, candidates have asked him. This has been a long election, but he hasn't...
KK: You know, I've seen that on television and his answer was show me the evidence and I will believe it. And that's like trying to blindfold himself from the evidence staring him in the face. The evidence is right there in front of him. Take Tari-Pori, he's got the counting results. And he's got the common roll that was used, in his hands. The evidence is right there. He looks at the total number of registered voters, he looks at the total number of votes cast. There's more votes casted than the names registered on the common roll. The evidence is right there in his possession. How can he say that he's waiting to see the evidence in circumstances where all the relevant evidence is in his own hands? And that's the kind of behaviour that reaffirms in our mind, it fortifies our belief that he is complicit in all this fraud.
JB: So there's going to be a lot of litigation, isn't there, or legal petitions about these election results?
KK: There will be, there will be. And the sad thing is that he will be using public money to defend himself. That's the sad part about it. He will not feel the pain for the damage that he has created. Litigants will bring litigation to prove the point but of course they will have to finance it themselves, while he will be sitting there painlessly, spending the people's money to defend himself, defend the fraud. Thats' the inequity of the situation we have, and it's sad. But that's the kind of challenge we have as a country. One day, you know, we hope to do things better.