Former PM O’Neill queries different poll dates for Highlands
News that matter in Papua New Guinea
Former PM O’Neill
queries different poll dates for Highlands
PORT MORESBY: Former prime minister Peter O’Neill has
raised concerns over the polling dates set by the Electoral Commission (EC) for
the Highlands.
The Ialibu-Pangia MP
claimed the dates were geared towards helping Pangu Pati.
“It is giving Pangu Pati
unfair advantage and makes absolutely no sense in the conduct of free and fair
elections,” he said.
O’Neill said to have
polling first in Hela and Enga while the rest of Highlands wait for four days
would encourage foul play and double voting as people move free between
provinces to vote multiple times.
“This has been a common
practice from past general elections and the EC has not learnt from past
mistakes,” he added.
PNG Cyber Monitor reproduces below a few Papua New Guinea General Election 2022 news updates as published by The National:
O’Neill queries poll
days
June 16, 2022The
NationalMain Stories
The former prime minister claimed the dates were geared towards helping Pangu
Pati.
“It is giving Pangu Pati unfair advantage and makes absolutely no sense in the
conduct of free and fair elections,” he said.
The People’s National Congress party leader said in a statement: “To have
polling first in Hela and Enga Provinces while rest of Highlands wait for four
days will certainly encourage foul play and double voting as people move free
between provinces to vote multiple times.
“This has been a common practice from past elections and the EC has not learnt
from past mistakes.”
He said the elections in Hela, Southern Highlands and Enga should be conducted
simultaneously the same day when the security forces were fresh and ready.
“They are the most difficult provinces and the EC should conduct polling on the
same day to avoid any foul play in voting.”
LPV system good for all candidates, says
official
THE 96 candidates
contesting East New Britain’s five seats in the General Election 2022 (GE22)
have been reminded of the benefits of the Limited Preferential Voting (LPV)
system.
Deputy provincial administrator Nicholas Larme spoke of the importance of the
LPV system and how it made for a fairer outcome rather than the first past the
post system.
Larme made the remarks during a candidates-voters awareness and forum in Kokopo
on Friday.
Larme, who is in charge of the district and local level government (LLG)
services in ENB, warned against negative campaign tactics and defamatory claims
especially against sitting MPs and instead encouraged the candidates to
campaign on their policies and platforms and to respect each other.
Larme said the advantage of the LPV system was that candidates could get one of
three preferences and this increased their chances of garnering numbers; he
said this would mean candidates were better served working with each other.
Provincial administrator and chairman of the provincial election steering
committee (PESC) Wilson Matava reiterated Larme’s points and urged candidates
and their supporters to conduct themselves well.
Candidate commends Sinai over call on
returning officer
AN Independent
candidate contesting the Hagen Open seat at the General Election 2022 (GE22) has
thanked Electoral Commissioner Simon Sinai for appointing a neutral person as
returning officer (RO) for the electorate.
Wan Kewa noted that after inadvertently appointing two ROs for Hagen which had
initially caused confusion including court action until Sinai appointed a new
RO Pius Nop from Jiwaka.
He also condemned the pouring of oil on the Kagamuga Airport runway which had
caused the halting of flights into the city for two days. He said this type of
behaviour showed that Hagen people were not committed to having a free, fair
and safe election.
Kewa pointed out that Sinai had the sole power and prerogative to revoke and
appoint ROs, and should not be influenced by candidates.
He said previous RO Willy Ropa was not the only person in the country qualified
to be the RO, and no one was indispensable.
“There are many other people in the country who are also qualified to be ROs.”
“All candidates should behave like leaders, stop complaining.”
Authorities turning blind eye to illegal
payments: O’Neill
FORMER Prime Minister
Peter O’Neill has warned Members of Parliament to stop forcing public servants
to make payments to contractors on bogus projects.
“Full investigations will be launched when we form Government to determine the
role of individuals in this massive fraud that is taking place right now to
make payments to shore up Pangu Pati candidate votes,” the People’s National
Congress Party leader said in a statement yesterday.
O’Neill claimed that a cabinet minister wrote to the Ombudsman Commission on
May 23 to ask for an exemption from all restrictions on an authority’s
operating account at BSP to be lifted.
O’Neill claimed that two weeks before the issue of writs, a senior cabinet
minister asked to have unfettered powers to control the bank account of the
authority with hundreds of millions of kina in it.
O’Neill claimed that the Ombudsman Commission on June 8 instructed BSP to clear
instantly all cheques of any amount belonging to the authority.
“In another example of this Government’s blatant lack of any semblance of
governance, the Ombudsman Commission has issued an instruction to BSP last week
to cash all Department of Finance cheques of K20,000 or less to hundreds of
bogus contractors without any of the normal checks and processes,” he said.
“PNC have committed publicly to fully funding the Independent Commission
Against Corruption (Icac) from day one.”
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