Papua New Guinea is planning a phased move toward biometric voter identification and electronic voting, beginning with photo-roll trials in selected regions rather than an immediate nationwide conversion.
Administrative Services Minister Richard Masere said the Electoral Commission, as an independent constitutional body, will determine whether the country is ready to use the technology. His department is providing policy oversight while election authorities progressively digitize the common roll and assess new voting and counting systems.
The current trial concept targets the seven Highlands provinces, the National Capital District, Popondetta and one or two additional urban districts. Masere described the photo roll as part of a broader biometric model that could use facial recognition, fingerprints and iris recognition to establish one eligible voter for each record.
That distinction matters because the immediate project is not a commitment to conduct the entire 2027 general election electronically. The government wants selected deployments to expose technical, administrative and voter-access problems before a wider rollout. Masere said the longer-term ambition is to introduce biometric and electronic voting more broadly by 2032 after a period of testing and public education.
Any transition will depend on improving the electoral register and reconciling it with civil-registration and national identity data. Government figures indicate that about 3.6 million of an estimated 5.9 million citizens aged 18 and over remain outside the national ID register. Large gaps are concentrated in communities where communications, enrollment access and public awareness can limit a digital system’s reach.
The policy responds to concerns about duplicate enrollment, unreliable rolls and election violence. Catholic leaders recently urged Papua New Guinea to adopt biometric voting safeguards, arguing that stronger voter identification could reduce fraud and disputes. Masere’s phased approach accepts that goal while placing the rollout on a longer timetable.
PNG has prior experience with biometric enrollment equipment. Credence ID previously supplied technology for biometric voter registration in Papua New Guinea, but fragmented identity records and uneven coverage have remained structural obstacles.
The next practical milestone will be the design and evaluation of the photo-roll pilots. Election authorities will need to specify enrollment standards, deduplication methods, audit procedures and fallback options for locations where devices or connectivity fail.
Sources: EMTV, Islands Business
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By the ID Tech Editorial Team
