It seems many eligible voters were not able to cast votes since their name was not on the roll. People went away frustrated, condemning the government for not doing its job.

“I saw a few people who should have voted walking away swearing at us in our polling booth but what could I do?” said a polling official from Ioro (Panguna).

“Common roll updates are not my responsibility; it is the responsibility of electoral bodies in Bougainville and PNG. They do it in Buka or Moresby, I am not sure.”

Many eligible voters had to search the rolls of many constituencies as polling officials looked for their names while queues of voters waited with increasing irritation.

“‘We had to stand under the sun waiting,” a voter at the Buka Belisi Park polling booth complained. “We got mad at them but we could not blame them for taking our time since they have the right to vote but the government failed them.”

A polling official who had participated in updating the common roll claimed they collect all the names but the people who put the data on to the rolls missed some.

“We travelled through the villages of north Nasioi and collected all the names,” an official in Arawa said. “Because we are locals and know every family by name, we know who is alive or moved or may have died.

“Then we sent that data to our leaders in Arawa who then sent it on to Buka. To me, it is in Buka that the data was misplaced or lost.”

Other people blamed anti-independence groups for tampering with the common roll so not many Bougainvilleans can vote at the referendum.

People want the referendum common roll updating to be removed from the government and given to a private company.

“Government entities in PNG and Bougainville are endowed with deficiencies,” said a public servant in Buka. “For Bougainville’s coming referendum to be fair and free, the updating of the referendum common roll should be done by a private company.”