Transcript
The Bougainville Referendum Commission has completed the official 'certified voter list' to be used in polling, which begins later this month.
The chief referendum officer, Mauricio Claudio, announced that the number of voters on the roll is 206,731.
"This represents about a twenty percent increase relative to the roll used in the 2015 ABG general elections. I'm also happy to report the gender ratio of the roll is actually better than the gender ratio in the 2011 census, the last census taken in Bougainville."
According to Mr Claudio, about 51 percent of voters are male and almost 49 percent are female.
He says the compilation of the roll was the result of the most comprehensive and thorough enrollment exercise ever conducted in Bougainville.
Mr Claudio says anyone wishing to vote in the referendum without having enrolled will be committing an electoral offence.
"Only those who have enrolled according to the law are entitled to vote in the referendum. Provisional voting is only for those who have already enrolled but who cannot be found on the voter roll at their polling places during polling."
Meanwhile, a major reconciliation ceremony has provided a security assurance for the upcoming vote.
Members of former warring groups in the Bougainville civil war, which raged through the 1990s, held their reconciliation in Kokopo, the capital of East New Britain province.
The two-day event involved former Bougainvillean combatants and members of PNG's security forces.
Gerald Tulu Manu-Peni of the Bougainville Unification Core Group says it was a milestone reconciliation.
"It gives assurance from the Bougainville veterans to Papua New Guinea and the international community that there will not be any war or incitement going on in Bougainville during the referendum and after the referendum. It also gives assurances on the part of the PNG security forces on our citizens, Bougainvillean citizens living in and around towns of PNG - opportunists might use the referendum result and outcome to do anything against them - so it gives assurance on both sides, in Bougainville and outside of Bougainville."
Major General Jerry Singirok, a retired commander of the PNG Defence Force, was one of many at the reconciliation.
By the end of the conflict he was commander of the PNGDF and he played a key role in one of the defining moments of the crisis when he forced the government to remove the Sandline mercenaries from the country, which was followed by the resignation of the prime minister.
Mr Singirok says the war had a significant, lasting effect on many lives.
"We can forgive but we will not forget all the experiences we've gone through. War, whether it's declared war or undeclared war, is a terrible thing to be involved in, so I think as a nation we have learnt a very, very hard lesson. And to now reflect back to see the peace process leading up to the referendum has given me the greatest joy, and obviously a release in my life, and it's also a healing process for me."
Gerald Tulu Manu-Peni has been travelling around Bougainville conducting awareness about the referendum and the two options on the ballot - independence or greater autonomy.
He says Bougainvilleans are well aware and well prepared for the two-week polling starting on 23 November.
Meanwhile, a regional police team led by New Zealand is on the ground, international observers are converging, and a liquor ban has been announced for the coming weeks which promise to be an important stanza in Bougainville's history.
