Former PM O’Neill queries different poll dates for Highlands

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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

IALIBU-PANGIA MP Peter O’Neill has raised concerns over the polling dates set by the Electoral Commission (EC) for the Highlands.
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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