Multiple voting is a sin. Catholics in five provinces to go for Confession

By Fr Frank Arnold

Since I came to Papua New Guinea I went through four national elections, in which multiple voting was not only common but a deed to be proud of. It never happened to me that a Catholic parishioner came to confession and accused himself or herself of having cast his or her vote more than once. I infer from that that multiple voting is not considered sinful. But according to the Christian ethics it is sinful since not only goes against the civil law but also against God’s law which forbids us to cheat.

   How big is the practice of multiple voting in PNG? Let us look at some figures. On August 9^th, 2012, on page 28 of the National Newspaper, a Chart appeared with the number of the 2012 election voters in all PNG provinces. Since PNG held a census in 2011 and, usually the rate of the population over 18 years (eligible voters) varies between 51% and 53%, we can get an idea in which province the common roll was particularly inflated and/or there were many multiple voting. Table 1 gives the provinces’ population according to 2011 Census, the estimate of the population eligible to vote according to the Census, and the actual number of voters as given in the above mentioned newspaper.

Tab.1: Total Provinces’ population, estimated +18 population, and number of voters (2012)

                               Source: Census 2011; National Newspaper, August 9, 2012.

One can notice that the provinces in which the number of voters substantially outweighs the number of the estimated eligible voters are in order: Western Highlands (more than 120,000), Southern Highlands (more than 100,000), Simbu (more than 70,000), East Sepik (almost 50,000), and Central (more than 12,000). It would be interesting to compare those figures with those of the common roll.

As a Catholic Priest, when I look at those figures, I feel very discouraged because, with the exception of the Central Province, all the others with a substantial multiple voting have a high percentage of Catholics. Do our Catholics not know that cheating is a sinful act? And that to send to Parliament an unworthy person by devious means is doubly sinful? However, in comparison to the 2002 elections, which were also held after a national Census (2000), the improvement in some provinces in the latest elections is noticeable, as shown in Table 2.

Table 2: Selected Provinces’ population, estimated +18 population, and number of voters (2002/2012)

Source: Census 2000, Electoral Commission, Census 2011, National Newspaper, August 9, 2012.

In 2002 the biggest discrepancies between the number of eligible voters and the actual voters were to be found in Simbu (more than 300,000), Eastern Highlands (more than 200,000), Enga and Western Highlands (more than 150,000) while East Sepik seems more correct. In comparison to the 2002 elections the figures of the voters in the latest one look less fraudulent.

Is this improvement enough? Should Catholic priests and other Christian leaders simply keep quiet or shouldn’t they begin as early as possible to make their faithful aware that multiple voting by one person or a group is a form of cheating, and cheating is forbidden by God’s holy commandments? (CBC Communications 250812 – giorgiolicini@yahoo.com)