The election manager on the Papua New Guinea island of Bougainville, Mathias Pihei, says they will redo the common roll in several villages after a group of young men stole then destroyed enrolment forms near Buin earlier this week.
Teams have been collecting data for the roll since early this month, ahead of the province's poll to elect its first autonomous government, beginning on May 20th.
Mr Pihei says they have decided to repeat the update in the villages affected.
"I have advised the district manager to arrange a team to go back but first of all we have to have a common understanding with the villages concerned and these young men involved otherwise we will meet up with the same fate."
Mr Pihei says the young men were upset that the registration officer leading the roll update team was from a rival village.
He says this will be rectified with this new attempt.
