Count me out: Troubled census sets tone for PNG democracy

By Michael Kabuni

A PNG enumerator collects census data on paper in one of Port Moresby’s largest suburbs, Gerehu on 28 June 2024. Photo: BenarNews / Harlyne Joku

Opinion - More than three months behind schedule, millions in new high-tech equipment wasted, and many workers left unpaid, these are the statistical outcomes so far from Papua New Guinea's census. While this case study in PNG administrative failure continues to unfold, ministers are heading overseas to learn about implementing a new counting system to underpin the county's democracy.

The 2024 census started late on 16 June, missed the count reporting deadline of 30 June, and in any case included only six questions, failing to meet the benchmark UN census standards, which emphasises reliable data.

Without timely and accurate census data, it will be impossible to create a reliable common roll or implement the planned biometric voting system by 2027 for the national election, which will require even greater coordination and efficiency.

A high-level PNG government delegation, led by Administrative Services Minister Richard Masere, has traveled to Australia to meet with electoral officials in Queensland and New South Wales. Their purpose is to observe the state elections and gather insights as PNG prepares to introduce biometric voting. Earlier this year, a delegation visited India on a similar fact-finding mission.

While learning from the international community to improve the PNG electoral system is vital, especially given the many challenges the country has faced in previous elections, all the lessons needed are at home. According to census coordinators I have spoken to, the process will potentially run into December or early 2025.

In June, as the census was about to start, Masere hailed his efforts to deliver the count for 153 million kina (US$39 million), from a forecast budget of 300 million kina, enabled by the use of digital tablets for recording data. The last census in 2011 returned highly unreliable statistics and coincidentally cost 150 million kina.

Today enumerators in many provinces are still demanding to be paid for their work, leading to widespread disruptions in data inputting and counting as census teams down their handwritten notes. Why handwritten notes? The tablets, intended to modernise and streamline data collection, have sat unused, despite the hefty price tag of 17.6 million kina. Teams have been manually entering data across the country, adding to the inefficiency.

The lessons gathered by Masere and his travel companions from countries like India and Australia, while valuable, are only as effective as the systems they are applied to. Three key components required for successful biometric voting are accurate population data, a complete and up-to-date common roll, and an efficient civil registration system. Currently, PNG is lacking in all these areas.

Take as an example the Civil and Identity Registry, it has only managed to register around three million people, out of the estimated 11 million in PNG, since its inception in 2013. Without addressing these issues, any advancements in biometric voting technology will be rendered ineffective and likely result in wasted resources and failed implementation.

What PNG truly needs is not just new systems or international lessons, but a concentrated effort to strengthen its existing frameworks. Numerous studies and reports have been produced over the years, offering recommendations on how to improve elections in PNG, including the concerns around the severely inaccurate 2022 common roll update. This requires sufficient funding, better staffing, and improved coordination among key agencies from the national government.

Institutions such as the National Statistical Office, civil registry, and even hospitals need to collaborate and share data to create a unified and comprehensive system. Currently, these agencies operate in silos, leading to fragmented and unreliable information.

Another cost of this administrative blunder is the repeatedly delayed local level government election, initially scheduled for 25 June 2024. Now set for April next year, the elected representatives will have less than two years in office before the next national election in mid-2027. This delay undermines the third level of government, which is closest to the people. We do not even know the number of wards in PNG, following an electoral redistribution that saw additional districts created in 2022.

What is needed now is not the pursuit of expensive new technologies or systems, but rather a focused effort to improve existing ones. PNG must ensure that the census is completed, the common roll updated, and the civil registration process expanded to cover the entire population. Without accurate data and effective governance, the lessons learned from abroad will be of little use, and PNG's ambitious plans for biometric voting will fail to deliver the desired democratic results.

*Michael Kabuni is a PhD student at the Australian National University and formerly a lecturer at the political science department at the University of Papua New Guinea. The views expressed here are his own and do not reflect the position of BenarNews.

-This article was first published by BenarNews.