Dear Members and Friends,
Second quarter was an extremely busy period for us at TIPNG.
At the top of the quarter, we engaged regional liaisons to facilitate observer trainings in all provinces of each region – Momase, Highlands, NGI and Southern.
We recruited and trained more than 340 volunteers who would observe the 2022 National General Elections.
Under our Building Elections Integrity through Partnership Project, we engaged with security forces to discuss corruption in the elections and how security forces can uphold integrity during elections and ensure a truly fair election in PNG.
We continued to engage with our financial members and organizations interested in the work that we do and facilitated voter education sessions for their staff.
In terms of our working partnership with the government sector, we continue to Co-Chair the PNG Open Government Partnership (OGP) initiative and we encourage other CSOs to engage in the OGP National Action Plan 2 (2022 – 2024).
The preparation and delivery of the national election has faced multiple administrative, legal and logistical challenges. The disjointed manner in which requisite electoral preparatory processes such as; the creation of new electorates, enrolment of new voters, updating of the roll, objection to the roll, appointment of returning officers, commencement of nomination, and gazettal of election and polling schedules have caused tension among our people. Some governance issues came to the fore and prompted our responses through the media. We pushed out media statements and overall, our position was clear: we want agencies to abide by the Constitution.
We held our 2021 Annual General Meeting in June and saw the appointment of the 2022 Board. We achieved another unqualified audit report that you can read in our 2021 Annual Report.
All in all, the highlight of this quarter for us at TIPNG was seeing the National Economic & Fiscal Commission (NEFC) launch their Anti-Corruption Strategy. This partnership has been a fulfilling one and we acknowledge the work and determination of NEFC put into the Strategy to enhance their mechanisms for addressing corruption.
Finally, I thank all our financial members for the continued support to our work. We appreciate you.
Yours in partnership,
Arianne Kassman
