The National
Trawen heartened by low number of informal
votes December 17,
2003
The low number of informal votes recorded in the first
election using the Limited Preferential Voting (LPV) system has
pleased Acting Electoral Commissioner Andrew Trawen.
Mr
Trawen said that since the LPV was being used for the first time in
the Abau Open by-election, he expected the number of informal votes
to be higher.
He said he was pleased with the fact that the
informal votes represent less than two per cent of total votes
cast.
Of the 18,544 votes counted, 345 were recorded as
informal, which is 1.89 per cent of total votes.
“We expected
the number of informal votes to be high because it’s the first time
we are using the new system. But only 1.8 per cent of total votes
turned out to be informal and it shows people of Abau are generally
literate and used the 1, 2, 3 voting system very easily,” Mr Trawen
said in an interview.
He attributed this to effective
awareness campaign on the LPV system carried out by Electoral
Commission and Central province administration prior to the
elections.
“It shows that if we plan properly, it will work
well. It’s a very effective system and it works for
everybody.
“It’s a good stepping stone for us. If the people
of Abau can do it, I’m sure the people of Simbu and Anglimp/South
Waghi will also do well.”
He said the by-elections for the
two electorates in the Highlands are expected to be held in the
first quarter of 2004.
Mr Trawen said the 60 per cent voter
turnout in Abau was also pleasing.
He said that that
shortcomings that were witnessed during counting process have to be
corrected now if future elections are to be handled well.
“We
can’t afford to make those types of mistakes. We have to be accurate
all the time. We have to improve on this,” he said in reference to
the four votes that were not accounted for during the counting of
second preference votes in the Abau election.
Returning
Officer Frank Gabi, who was spoken to separately about this
discrepancy, said in a closer contest, the situation might be
different. |