He said the report by the Commonwealth Observer Mission to Ghana’s 2016 general election was now a benchmark for election administration for other countries in Africa.

Mr Whittal made the statement after his arrival in the country from his duties as a member of the Commonwealth Observer Mission to Papua New Guinea’s 2017 general election.

Benchmark

The election took place from June 24 to July 8, 2017, but voting continued into the third week of the polls due to the remoteness of some areas.

The commissioner of CHRAJ, who was appointed to join the team in his personal capacity as a human rights advocate, said his experiences as a member of the Commonwealth Observer Mission made him acutely aware of the great strides Ghana had made in its electoral management, processes and administration.

“What we go through in Ghana is pristine democracy, where all we go through is like clockwork,” he told the Daily Graphic in an interview in Accra.

He said the report by the Commonwealth Observer Mission to Ghana’s 2016 general election was used as the standard in observing electoral processes there.

Challenges

Mr Whittal said in the area he monitored called Sepik, which was in the north-eastern part of the country, the team encountered some challenges relating to missing names on the common roll and some misunderstanding as to the number of people that were eligible to vote in a particular area.

He said because Papua New Guinea’s electoral system was still basically manual, all voters had to wait for their names to be physically searched in the common roll and crossed out before they could vote.

He said by the 12th day, voting was still ongoing in Papua New Guinea.

Best practices

Mr Whittal said in their deliberations with the Papua New Guinea Electoral Commission (EC), the institution expressed its desire to employ technology and verify voters by using fingerprints.

He said since the report of the Commonwealth Observer Mission to Ghana’s 2016 general election was the standard report used by the team to benchmark Papua New Guinea’s general election, it was decided to facilitate some collaboration between the two ECs.

He said the EC of Papua New Guinea also expressed the desire to link up with Ghana’s institution and share best practices.