Boat capsizes in rough seas, pastor, wife, young man ‘drowned’ on their way for GE22 polling

News that matter in Papua New Guinea

Boat capsizes in rough seas, pastor, wife, young man ‘drowned’ on their way for GE22 polling

PORT MORESBY: A pastor, his wife and a young man were found dead after a boat capsized in rough seas at the mouth of Kalo village’s Kempwelch River in Rigo, Central, on Thursday (July 7, 2022).

Commander Superintendent John Midi said a search was ongoing for a missing Grade 8 schoolboy.

He said 14 people were on the boat heading for Keapara from Kalo to cast their General Election 2022 (GE22) ballots when strong winds overturned the boat.

PNG Cyber Monitor reproduces below the news break and a few GE22 news updates as reported by The National:

Three dead, 1 missing in boat mishap

July 12, 2022The NationalMain Stories

By AILEEN KWARAGU
A PASTOR, his wife and a young man were found dead after a boat capsized in rough seas at the mouth of Kalo village’s Kempwelch River in Rigo, Central, on Thursday.
Commander Superintendent John Midi said a search was ongoing for a missing Grade Eight schoolboy.
He said 14 people were on board the boat travelling from Kalo to Keapara to cast their General Election 2022 (GE22) ballots when strong winds overturned the boat.
“The pastor and his family were from Keapara and they were travelling to the village to cast their vote when they encountered rough seas.
“We have been helping villagers in the search as well as investigating the incident.
“The bodies of the three were recovered and transported to a funeral home in Port Moresby” he said.
Midi said he did not receive an update on the status of the missing boy but investigations were ongoing.
“Police are also waiting for the coroner’s report to confirm the cause of death of the trio,” he added.
Meanwhile, GE22-related deaths as reported by the media as of yesterday now stands at 42.

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Court strikes out ARO’s case

July 12, 2022The NationalMain Stories

By MALIKAI BALANDU
SENIOR magistrate Pious Tapil has struck out the charge of interfering with ballot papers and boxes against General Election 2022 (GE22) assistant returning officer Kamis Conery.
“The police prosecution must seek further instructions and proper formalities from the Electoral Commission (EC) and legal counsel to proceed with the matter.
“The EC has to give proper formalities for police to proceed with the case.
“I will have to strike out this case and release Conery from (police) custody.
“Only after proper authorisation can police can resume the case,” he added.
The police report stated that on July 2, Conery, 43, allegedly transported election materials from Lae to Finschhafen without any security escort and distributed the ballot papers to polling teams without security presence.
It was further alleged that on July 3, Conery transported the election materials (ballot boxes and ballot papers), loaded onto an open back Toyota Land Cruiser, and left Gagidu station in Finschhafen at about 5pm to Pindiu station without security escorting the election materials.
On July 5, Conery distributed the ballot papers to polling teams without security presence and during the morning of polling time, polling officials and scrutineers received a message about hijacking/interfering with ballot papers for Kotec, and in the presence of scrutineers and polling officials, it was found that 11 books containing 550 ballot papers for Ward 7 were missing.

Officials await chopper for hinterland polling

POLLING officials for Agaun in the hinterlands of Milne Bay have yet to conduct polling because their materials are still in Alotau, an official says.
Provincial returning officer, Ivan Maraka said they were still waiting for logistical help from the PNG Electoral Commission in Port Moresby.
Maraka said the chopper company that was engaged for Milne Bay withdrew at the last minute.
He said a fixed-wing aircraft was organised to airlift the materials but they were awaiting fuel from Port Moresby.
Maraka said the chopper is currently airlifting polling teams in Gulf.

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West Sepik concludes polling

THREE of the 18 local level governments (LLGs) in West Sepik completed polling on Monday while the rest are expected to finish today, an official says.
West Sepik election manager Salote Kai also said counting for the electorates might begin towards the end of the week, depending on how fast they could complete polling.
“We should have been on time but due to late start, we have been delayed in some remote areas like Telefomin and Oksapmin where we need chopper to airlift election materials,” said Kai.
She said a chopper had been allocated to help out in polling at Telefomin, they would ensure ballot boxes and papers were moved swiftly and safely for counting to begin.
According to Kai, last polling should be by Wednesday and counting might begin on Thursday, July 14.
“In Nuku last Thursday, there was an incident where a man was murdered at Kolembi village after he tried to stop some men from fighting near a group of people standing in the queue to cast their votes,” she said.
She said soldiers had been sent to Palai local level government area where the murder happened.
Two ballot boxes were broken by an angry voter also at Nuku and the person was now in custody at Vanimo jail.

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Over 50 teams complete polling in Menyamya

POLLING in Menyamya, Morobe has been completed in the four local level governments but there is a delay in counting because of problems with transporting ballot boxes, an official says.
Menyamya returning officer Nande Awape said all 51 teams had completed their polling in the electorate on Saturday but the counting was delayed because some of them could not make it back to the district headquarters.
“These teams are from Kome LLG with three boxes waiting to be airlifted to Menyamya station while the other 14 boxes had been transported by road and are now at the district headquarters in Menyamya,” Awape said.
He said for the Wapi LLG, all polling teams had completed their polling and returned over the weekend with their ballot boxes which were kept at the district headquarters in Menyamya.
“Since they have all returned, they may start their primary counting for the LLG starting tomorrow (today)”.
He said the four LLGs would be counted separately with each having its own counting venue at the district headquarters.
Awape said for the Nanima Kariba LLG, 14 polling teams were sent, 13 returned over the weekend and one remained there waiting to be airlifted to the district headquarters for counting.
“Three of the polling teams in this LLG had to walk with the ballot boxes after they could not be picked up by the chopper but now they are already at the district headquarters.”
Three polling teams are still waiting for the chopper to pick them up at different locations in the Kapao LLG.

Chopper flight costs K500,000

By GLORIA BAUAI in Madang
THE Madang Electoral Office is running its General Election 2022 on a K1.8 million budget, election manager Sponsa Navi says.
He said logistics, particularly the use of helicopters for its remote districts, have been very costly for the province.
“Chopper uses up a huge slice of the money – about a quarter of our budget,” he said.
“For a chopper to do a six-hour flight will cost more than K500,000 and the amount increases when it sits and waits for us to get ourselves organised,” he said.
“It’s very expensive to use this mode of transport so we’re only using this for very remote areas of the province; other areas accessible by road, teams go by foot or vehicle.
“As we speak, we still have chopper trips to Naiyudo, Rai Coast, Usino and Josephstaal in Madang where two teams are waiting to be extracted back.”
Navi said additional funding had been promised by the provincial administrator to ensure a smooth delivery of the election in the province.

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Polling in Gulf smooth: Commander

POLLING in Gulf’s Kerema and Kikori is progressing well, Commander Chief Inspector Jeffrey Lemb says.
“Of the nine local level governments (LLG), the last three days of activities were in the Kerema Urban where polling has completed and operations have moved to West Kerema and Kerema Central.
“Lakekamu was also covered with polling still in progress,” he added.
Lemb said Kotidanga and Kaintiba were remote places and “we are for airlift from the Papua New Guinea (PNG) Electoral Commission (EC) to bring their polling teams and security personnel.
He said all the security personnel had been identified to escort ballot boxes and General Election 2022 (GE22) materials to the remote places that were only accessible by air.
Meanwhile, all the ballot boxes were escorted on Saturday morning to Kikori and Baimuru where polling started yesterday.
Lemb said Gulf had a peaceful and quiet election so far with no major incidents.
He said the only complaints raised everywhere were missing names on the printed Common Roll.

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Wau-Waria reports quiet polling despite being a new electorate

Gulf’s remote interior served … Kaintiba and Kotidanga are the last local level governments (LLGs) to receive their ballot boxes concluding election materials. According to election officials, the polling teams were hoping to conduct a day’s polling in the remote mountainous region but weather conditions had not permitted the helicopter to travel to the location. The teams will also be using the 2017 common roll as a supplementary list to conduct polling. All counting begins as soon as the boxes return to Kerema town. Pictured are election officials and security personnel loading ballot boxes for Kaintiba LLG at the Kerema airstrip. – Nationalpic by JAMIE HARO.

By JIMMY KALEBE
DESPITE being a newly established electorate in Morobe, Wau-Waria electorate has conducted its campaign and polling peacefully and without any problems, an official says.
Returning officer (RO) Fidelis Harrisol said despite the fact that many people did not vote due to their names not being on common roll, people in the electorate conducted themselves responsibly during the General Election 2022 (GE2022).
“Out of the rest of Morobe, my electorate has done well in the polling and we are looking at completing all polling in the electorate by this Wednesday,” he said.
Harrisol said counting for the new electorate would take place in Wau town.
“While preparations are underway for the counting venue, we are faced with other challenges including water supply and continuous power outages,” he said.
Harrisol said in taking these issues into consideration they hoped to relax some of the time constraints in order to allow officials enough time to count ballots.
“We are expecting counting for the new electorate to start over the coming weekend.”
Meanwhile, polling in Wau urban local level government (LLG) was completed on Saturday while Wau Rural LLG completed its polling yesterday.
For Waria LLG, seven teams completed their polling as of yesterday while another five teams would complete their polling in the LLG by today.
Harrisol thanked security personnel, election officials and the people in Wau-Waria.