O’Neill: Loans spent on infrastructure
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O’Neill: Loans spent on
infrastructure
PORT MORESBY: Former Prime Minister Peter O’Neill, responding
to complaints by the current Government on loans he took during his reign says:
Ï invested those monies to what was needed by our people.”
“Since Independence
1975, until when I took over the Government, Papua New Guinea (PNG)’s budget
deficit stood at K8 billion.
“When I took over, the
debt was increased to K20 billion, with most of that money invested into
infrastructure. I can name all those projects we implemented nationwide,” he
added.
PNG Cyber Monitor reproduces below a few General Election 2022 news updates as published by The National:
‘Loans spent on
infrastructure’
June 3, 2022The
NationalMain Stories
“Since Independence in 1975, until when I took over government, PNG’s budget
deficit stood at K8 billion.
“When I took over, I increased that to K20 billion, with most of that money
invested into infrastructure.
“I can name all those projects we implemented all over the country.”
O’Neill during his party’s candidate announcement for the Moresby North-West
seat, Dr Thaddeus Kambanei, reminded the people what his government had done
during his tenure as prime minister between 2011 and 2019.
The People’s National Congress (PNC) party leader told the people about the infrastructural
development his government had done.
He assured the people that there was no doubt they would see those
infrastructure such as roads, schools and hospitals further developed should
PNC return to power after the general election.
“I am happy to support Dr Thaddeus as I had worked with him for 20 years, and
am aware of his vast experience in managing public offices,” O’Neill said.
“I am aware of his loyalty, his credibility and is a God-fearing person.”
O’Neill also said that with Kambanei’s credibility, if elected into parliament,
it would attract foreign investors to work with people like him.
“We want to see our people be employed, earn wages so that they can look after
their families.”
O’Neill had repeatedly spoken about the bad state the country was in let alone
the economy and it needed to be rescued.
He had told The National that health and education systems
among others were also “collapsing”.
Many hospitals around the country are struggling to have basic medicine and
equipment, he had said. He stressed on giving confidence to the business
community which seemed to have been lacking.
Last week in Lae, Marape dared O’Neill to take him on in a live public debate
to show what he had done during his eight-year term.
Marape said he was willing to debate with the former prime minister (O’Neill)
at either University of PNG or University of Technology.
“I will bring my three years to the table, O’Neill will bring any three years
to his table, where we will talk about inflation, loans and what we have
achieved.”
Maru: No need for
country to borrow
June 3, 2022The
NationalMain Stories
THE country should never borrow again for any
mining and petroleum project so that enough revenue can be raised, People First
Party (PFP) leader and Yangortu-Saussia MP Richard Maru says.
“In 10 years’ time, we want PNG to be economically independent.
“We do not need to go on borrowing, we have enough financial resources to run
our country, it can be done in 10 years,” he said.
“We must never borrow again for any mining and petroleum projects, the loans
are killing us, why should we borrow to invest in a mine that is basically the
resources of Papua New Guineans, owned by Papua New Guineans.
“This is a very core policy of PFP, landowners don’t need to even raise equity,
the state doesn’t need to raise equity, everything must be free carry, like you
do in Malaysia, Indonesia, if they can do it, why can’t we do it.
“This is one way to stop unnecessary expenditure of repaying loans.
“This money should be raised and kept for us to pay for free school fees and
hospital drugs.
“For example, New Zealand is a country with 5.5 million people, their internal
revenue is sitting at K119 billion, PNG this year’s budget, we are going to
raise K15 billion, we need K20 billion, K30 billion, K40 billion to build our
country,” Maru said.
Marape: Do not
retaliate
June 3, 2022The
NationalMain Stories
Marape said since it was Pangu that ushered in independence and gave the
country its sovereignty, more responsibility was on Pangu members, candidates
and supporters to uphold every facet and tenet of democracy in the country.
“We are like the mother of the country,” he said.
“PNG is the child of Pangu Pati.
“In 1975, it was Pangu Pati, used by God through the founding fathers, that
ushered in the sovereignty we have today.
“Key within this sovereignty is the democratic values that our country has been
gifted with by our party’s founders who were also the founders of this country.
“So the greater responsibility lies with Pangu Pati.
“I appeal to our party supporters and candidates throughout the country to
practise restraint on violence, threat and intimidation.”
Marape said he wished to pass into the future a secured democracy where all its
tenets and facets remained intact.
“We will campaign hard and fair,” he said.
“We will dwell on our past deliveries.
“We talk on our policies and we talk about what we will do for the future.”
Marape said he was aware of Pangu Pati flags and merchandise being burnt in
Southern Highlands by supporters of other candidates.
“I call upon our supporters, do not resort to these sorts of tactics by
repaying evil with evil,” he said.
“These are the people who have no comfort in their policies, therefore
resorting to violence, threat and intimidation.
“But this country will do so much better without threat, intimidation and
violence.
“The greatest need for this country right now is love, tolerance to opposition
views, humility, patience, grace, and forgiveness of one and other.
“Pangu Pati supporters in the country must reflect these noble virtues. These
are Christian virtues as practised by our founding fathers and mothers in the
building of PNG at the start.
“This country must remain united.”
Soloma lays complaint to probe incident
By ZACHERY PERand By
HELEN TARAWA
POLICE in Eastern
Highlands received a formal complaint and request for a thorough investigation
into the burning of five vehicles in Okapa last Friday.
Provincial police commander Superintendent Michael Welly yesterday confirmed
receiving the letter of complaint from Okapa MP and Minister for Energy Saki
Soloma.
He said Soloma asked for a thorough investigation into the incident and to
arrest and charge those responsible for the attack on his convoy.
Supt Welly said there would be an independent investigation and he promised
that they would bring out facts surrounding the attack on the MP’s convoy and
burning of vehicles.
“If candidates and supporters provoke situations and cause law and order
problems, police will carry out their duties to arrests and charge people,” he
said.
Supt Welly also warned candidates not to let their supporters create
provocative situations by using inappropriate words and performing unwarranted
actions.
He said police would even arrest candidates if they were seen to be encouraging
their supporters to behave this way.
Pangu Pati president Singin confident of
party’s future
By REBECCA KUKU
PAPUA New Guinea’s
largest and oldest political party, Pangu Pati, will remain a major political
force well into the future due to its unrivalled development and progressive
policies, president Erigeri Singin says.
Singin said that these same policies were founded and consolidated well before
self-government by the nation’s founding fathers and brought independence to
PNG which the political parties now enjoyed and future ones would enjoy.
“For the record, Pangu Pati has a proud historical record of 55 years, dating
back to 1967,” she said.
“The Pangu Pati of today adopted in 1973 the famous eight point development
plan which were translated and implanted into the Five National Goals and
Directive Principles of the preamble of the Constitution.
“Our anti-corruption policies enabled the Government to pass indispensable
legislation including the establishment of Icac, the Whistleblowers Act and
others including dangerous drugs, family violence National Pandemic Act and
lots more. Based on the foundation of this track record, PNG has developed into
a respectable and progressive nation, recognised by our friends and foes, and
it is through this same undivided loyalty to the country and its precious
government to recuse PNG from its most untenable economic situation.”
Singin said Pangu’s sound policies enabled the Marape Government to turn the
economy around to a respectable position of which the country now benefited.
She said the party pledged to continue implementation of its nation building,
economic recovery, law and justice, anti-corruption, improved health and
education and resources and infrastructure development.
Kai youngest election
manager
June 3, 2022The NationalMain Stories
WEST Sepik election
manager Salote Kai is prepared for her first general election.
The 33-year-old of Madang and East Sepik parentage was born and raised in the
province and has more local knowledge about the province itself.
“I started my journey working in the provincial election office since 2012
onwards until 2019, I was offered a role as the assistant election manager,”
she said. Salote is the youngest provincial election manager at this year’s
general election.
She was promoted to acting election manager in 2019 where she was fortunate to
oversee her first elections for the province’s local level government (LLG).
“The first election that I delivered was the LLG elections in 2019,” she said.
“One of the exciting things that I’ve encountered with the Electoral Commission
is the job satisfaction that I get to be involved in the election of leaders.
However my biggest challenge is the democratic process and the procedures that
I have to uphold,” she said.
“This will be my first national elections as the election manager for West
Sepik.”
Salote said she found her job interesting because she was a people-oriented
person.
“The good thing about working with my team is that we embrace the concept of
working with our partners, especially with the provincial administration and
the LLGs.”
Salote said most of locals working in those areas had a wealth of experience so
they used them to implement the election organising activities.
“Personally, being the youngest is not really a challenge for me, the main
thing is to ensure that the democratic processes is upheld at all times, I give
my best where it due.”
Salote’s main concern now is to ensure the people have a free, fair and safe
elections in West Sepik.
“I call on the candidates to take full responsibilities of their supporters and
ensure that they behave well.” A total of 134 candidates will be contesting
West Sepik’s the five seats.
184 candidates contestingfor five seats in
Western
Candidate on bike …
Wewak Open candidate Stanley Muts Samban riding a bicycle during his recent
rally at the Somare stadium in Wewak. Samban has urged people in the East
Sepik’s capital to choose a leader wisely in the general election. He said
there are some candidates who only fly into the province at this time every
five year to get mandates. Samban is contesting under the PNG Party ticket.–
Picture supplied.
A TOTAL of 184
candidates including six women will be contesting the five seats in Western in
the 2022 general election.
Provincial election manager Max Paul told The National that
there had been a decrease in the number of candidates compared to 2017.
Paul said except for the Middle Fly electorate, the other four seats – South
Fly, Delta Fly, North Fly and regional – had women candidates.
He said the provincial seat had three women while the other three seats, South
Fly, North Fly and the new Delta Fly each had one women candidate bringing the
total number to six. “Looking at the number of candidates there has been a
decrease in all five seats with the inclusion of the new Delta Fly seat,” he
said.
Paul said the Western provincial seat had 41 candidates, Middle Fly-22, South
Fly-57, North Fly-22 and Delta Fly had 42 bringing the total to 184. Paul, who
is currently attending a two-week training with election managers from around
the country, said the purpose of the gathering was to discuss polling and
counting.
“Western is different from the other provinces and logistics is challenging
with its vast land mass.
Court reserves ruling on RO appointment
By CLARISSA MO
A COURT has reserved a
ruling on a challenge of an appointment of the Jiwaka provincial returning
officer (RO) by Governor William Tongamp.
Tongamp filed an originating summons on May 18 to seek leave of the court to
review Electoral Commissioner Simon Sinai’s May 6 decision to appoint Umar Nuka
as RO.
Tongamp, through his lawyer Michael Kuma, told Judge Joseph Yagi in the Waigani
National Court yesterday that Nuka was not a fit and proper, or a credible
person to be appointed to a position. Judge Yagi reserved his decision to be
handed down today.
Kuma said Tongamp needed to be allowed to challenge Sinai’s decision as his run
for re-election could be affected by the appointment of an unqualified and
questionable individual.
He added that Nuka was a former and terminated public officer and was,
therefore, not lawfully qualified to be appointed as an RO.
Kuma said this came under section 3 (1) of the Organic Law on National and
Local Level Government Elections which defined an officer as an officer or an
employee of the public service.
Manager cites election challenges in Milne Bay
The general election for Milne Bay is
challenging due to increase in number of polling teams, assistant election
manager Anna Dagubi says.
Dagubi, who attended a two-day training programme with other election managers
in Port Moresby this week, said the number of polling teams had been increased
to reduce the number of polling days.
“The number of polling teams have been increased from 98 in the 2017 general
election to more than 100,” she said.
“We have increased the number of polling teams in order to lessen the number of
polling days to all for counting.”
Dagubi said the training was organised to help provinces finalise their
logistics, polling and counting.
“This training is to help us finalise and confirm logistics for Milne Bay
because of the outer islands and the hinterland.
“The areas of concern for us are Agaun in the inland and West Fergusson,
Goodenough in the islands and Suau, Weraura and Makamaka on the mainland.
“We will be using a lot of boats and dinghies to cover the difficult areas
within the outer islands, and vehicles for the nearby areas.” Counting for all
five seats in Milne Bay will for the first time be held in Alotau due to
logistical challenges and security issues.
Meanwhile, Dagubi said candidates for Milne Bay had increase compared to 2017.
Morobe to decentralise
counting
June 3, 2022The
NationalMain Stories
Soheke, who was in Port Moresby this week with all other election managers
nationwide, told The National that the counting of primary
votes and elimination would be held at the districts.
He said the amalgamation and elimination of the counting would take place in
provincial headquarters.
“It is a lot of work and we have to manage well because our target is to return
the writs before July 29, 2022.
“We are strategising to ensure that we meet the target,” Soheke said.
He said polling will be conducted in the urban areas.
“We trying as much as possible to deliver this polling well but it all depends on
the logistics.
“We need logistical support and we are not discussing how this will be carried
out,” he said.
Meanwhile, Soheke said the nomination period was peaceful and one contributing
factor was due to the tragic death of the former Bulolo MP.
“Few districts went heavy with the supporters overloading vehicles, especially
in Markham when deputy speaker and incumbent MP Koni Iguan filed his
nomination.
“We also had reports of the nominations in Huon Gulf when National Alliance
Party and United Resource Party candidates went to file their nominations.
“There were also reports of the crowd build up in Bulolo when the son of late
MP Sam Basil nominated,” he said.
He said in Morobe, out of the 53 registered political parties, 31 had endorsed
candidates out of which four were not registered parties.
Kainantucandidate wants new province
Triumph Heritage
Empowerment (THE) party candidate for Kainantu Stearford Amevo being escorted
out of the Kainantu Council Chamber after his nomination on Wednesday. –
Nationalpic by ZACHERY PER
By ZACHERY PER
TRIUMPH Heritage
Empowerment (THE) party candidate contesting the Kainantu open Stearford Amevo
will vie for a separate Kainantu province if he is elected.
Amevo, an architect by profession, has designed many health and school
buildings in Ramu (Madang), Markham (Morobe) and Obura-Wonenara (Eastern
Highlands) and said he realised that people living on the border areas of
provinces were the most neglected.
He said the Markham people of Morobe and Ramu of Madang shared borders and were
mostly neglected in terms of access to basic services.
“If I have my way I will make submissions to the Provincial Boundaries
Commission to unite parts of Ramu (Madang) Markham (Morobe), Obura-Wonenara,
Okapa and Henganofi (EHP) to become a separate province.
“Our headquarters would be Kainantu town, it will be the gateway province to
the Highlands and Momase regions,” Amevo said. He filed his nomination papers
last week.
He said his main reason for contesting was to separate Kainantu from Eastern
Highlands to be a province of its own and to develop the town and surrounding
local level governments.
Manus recorded high infections
MANUS recorded a high
number of sexually-transmitted infections (STI), including HIV/AIDS, after the
last two general elections.
Manus health authority (PHA) HIV/AIDS technical officer Eileen Posile says
through partnership with the Manus electoral office, an awareness programme has
been organised for this election period.
She said the PHAs HIV/AIDS response and Niupela Pasin integrated
programme would be conducting prevention awareness on HIV/AIDS, STIs and
Coronavirus (Covid-19) around the polling booths at wards in local level
government areas.
“Thirty-eight volunteers will be attached to each of the polling teams to
conduct prevention awareness on HIV/AIDs and STIs, distribute condoms,
disseminate information on Covid-19 and conduct Niupela Pasin awareness,”
she said.
“This is an opportunity and a strategy used to reach out to the bulk of the
population during general election 2022. Manus has a cumulative total of 409
PLHIV (people living with HIV) from 1997 to 2021,”
“This is a prevalence rate of 0.67 per cent.
“During the 2012 and 2017 general elections Manus recorded a high number of new
HIV cases and STIs.
“This year’s general election, the HIV/AIDS and combined Niupela Pasin prevention
awareness should see a reduction in the spread of HIV/AIDS and STIs.
Madang still waiting for ballot papers to arrive
BALLOT papers are expected to be shipped to
Madang next week for all seven seats, says election manager Sponsa Navi.
“Now we are just trying to get ourselves organised for the polling. The
materials will be shipped to us from the office in Port Moresby; containers,
ballot papers and boxes etc., then will start to go across to Madang by next
week,” he said in Port Moresby.
“When we return to Madang, the meter box would have arrived and we would then
conduct training for all the returning officers (ROs) so that they can then go
out and do the training for all the officials, that’s the first thing that we
have to do very quickly.”
He said there were only three weeks left for ROs and the team at the Electoral
Commission to prepare before polling and counting began.
He said his team was still waiting for support, especially financial help. He
said that although they were experienced managers who could get the work done,
they were in need of the right support.
“My ROs are ready to do the work, they’re just waiting for my return and then
we’ll start but we’re waiting for the materials to be shipped to us and for
that support to arrive,” he said.
He confirmed that the final tally of candidates contesting this election was
315 which was higher than the 2017 election figure of 270.
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