A United Nations elections expert working in Bougainville says well trained scrutineers help improve the voting process.
The autonomous Papua New Guinea region goes to the polls for two weeks from Monday and the UNDP's Ray Kennedy has been in Bougainville for four weeks helping in the preparations.
Bougainville readies for election Photo: AFP
He says he has been training the candidates' scrutineers and says if they are better informed, any questions they put to election officials will have more value.
"Scrutineers can actually point out to presiding officers if they believe there is a problem in the way that the election is being carried out at the polling place, hopefully minimise the number of mistakes made in the course of the day and thereby contribute to a better process."
The UNDP has also been helping women candidates, is preparing the election monitors and plans a thorough assessment of the election process after the event.
