Chaos in Enga, police station with stranded ballot boxes under attack for last three days

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Chaos in Enga, police station with stranded ballot boxes under attack for last three days

PORT MORESBY: Enga is in chaos as rival candidates for the General Election 2022 (GE22) fight to hijack ballot boxes with the police station under attack for the past three days, Commander Acting Superintendent George Kakas says.

“Rival candidates also tried to burn down incumbent MP Sir John Pundari’s house, the sub-district office and the Yumbiliam High School.

“A running gunfight between the supporters of the candidates rages on. The ballot boxes could not be transported to counting centres and are stored in the police station,” he added.

Kakas said a fight between candidate supporters had also just erupted in Wabag and “we have asked for additional security manpower”.

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


Enga elections in chaos

July 15, 2022The NationalMain Stories

By REBECCA KUKU
ENGA is in chaos as rival candidates for the General Election 2022 (GE22) fight to hijack ballot boxes with the police station under attack for the past three days, police commander Acting Superintendent George Kakas says.
“Rival candidates also tried to burn incumbent MP Sir John Pundari’s house, the sub-district office and the Yumbiliam High School,” he said.

Supporters of candidates dancing with their loots as the Yumbiliam High School burns in their background. – Picture supplied

“A running gunfight between the supporters of the candidates rages on. The ballot boxes could not be transported to counting centres and are stored in the police station.
“And a fight between candidate supporters has just erupted in Wabag. We have asked for additional security manpower.”
Kakas told The National yesterday that illegal roadblocks set up in the area were making it difficult to transport the ballot boxes.
“In Kompiam, a public servant was shot dead and ballot boxes were hijacked by candidates with roadblocks being set up at all access points,” he said.
“A helicopter, hired to transport ballot boxes for counting, was fired at. All such operations involving the use of helicopters have ceased.
“The ballot boxes remain stranded. Last week, our police vehicles were also burnt there.
“I understand electoral officers have made a request to Electoral Commissioner Simon Sinai for an extension of time as polling ends tomorrow (today), but are still waiting for a response.”
Kakas, who was driving up to Paiam yesterday, said he was taking the back road via Mendi as the roads in the area were also blocked off by supporters of candidates.
“In Paiam, roads were blocked, making it impossible for ballot boxes to be transported to counting centres,” he said.
Kakas said that he needed additional manpower to address all the security issues unfolding in Enga.
Meanwhile, election manager Anton Iamau could not be reached for comments all day yesterday.
Attempts made to get comments from Electoral Commissioner Simon Sinai on whether polling for Enga would be extended were also unsuccessful.
Enga comprises seven seats – Enga provincial, Kandep, Kopiam-Ambum, Lagaip, Pogera-Paiela, Wabag and Wapenamanda.


Hela starts with counting of ballots for Highlands

COUNTING of polling ballots for General Election 2022 (GE22) in the Highlands began last week with Hela, while other provinces started this week.
Hela election manager John Tipa said Hela was the first province in the region to start polling on July 4 and the winner for Tari-Pori (Prime Minister James Marape) has already been declared.
“The seat is connected by road so we were able to transport the ballot boxes for counting,” he said.
“We also started counting for the provincial seat last week and all the other electorates began this week.
“We are looking at counting to be completed by the end of this week.”
Southern Highlands began transporting ballot boxes back to Mendi yesterday afternoon, with counting expected to start today at the Momi Oval.
Western Highlands is also expected to start its counting today at the Kimininga Barracks in Hagen with pre-checks completed yesterday.
Eastern Highlands, Chimbu and Jiwaka are expected to start soon as polling for GE22 ends today.
In Enga, GE22-related fights, burning of properties, roadblocks and stealing of ballot boxes had delayed polling for parts of the province as calls were made for additional security manpower and an extension of time for voting.
Meanwhile, CCTVs would be used to monitor selected counting centres nationwide for GE22, Electoral Commissioner Simon Sinai says.
He said GE22’s counting process would be speeded up to meet the July 29 deadline for the return of writs.


Namah urges candidates to stop election-related violence

OPPOSITION Leader Belden Nanah has urged all General Election 2022 (GE22) candidates to stop the violence that is threatening to overwhelm Papua New Guinea.
“Whether you are incumbent MPs or aspiring to be one, you are no leader if you allow violence in your communities and electorates,” he said. “The common (people) do not expect you to lead them to battle.
“They expect you to contribute to the betterment of their living conditions, to provide markets for their food, to provide education for their children, to provide medicine for their sick, to provide security for their comfort and safety.
“I urge all political parties entering the final stages of GE22 to denounce the killings, the hijacking of ballot papers and boxes, and all the other election fraud that are occurring nationwide.”
Namah said the GE22, the worst in PNG’s history, must be blamed on the Government led by Prime Minister James Marape.
“He has not allowed a national census when it was due in 2021 to know what the current population is,” Namah said.
“He did not allocate money ahead of time to compile the common roll.
“He tried to add 14 more electorates to the then 111 seats at the very last minute in Parliament, creating much confusion.
“He then decided that only seven of the 13 electorates could go to GE22, denying the constitutional rights of people in the six other electorates.
“And while there is confusion and anger nationwide, Marape becomes the only person to be declared MP. Is it a fair win?”

Schools put safety first, delay classes

July 15, 2022The NationalMain Stories

By LORRAINE JIMAL
SCHOOL children in East Sepik will have another week’s holiday for safety reasons while teachers resume duties on Monday, an official says.
ESP education executive manager Raymond Bakavi said given the election situation in the province, they were not ready for the students to resume classes yet.
The one-week extension is for students’ safety, as seeing the election conduct and people’s movement – not really good for students to resume on Monday with the counting still going on,” he said.
Bakavi said students should use the time to prepare themselves as grade 12s would sit for their written expression examination in few weeks’ time.
He urged the students to use their time to help their parents and prepare for school, not moving around unnecessarily.
“We have followed advice from the Education Department and secretary to get advice from the provincial education administration and they have approved a week’s extension,” he said.
However, he said teachers were to resume classes on July 18 before the students’ resumed on July 25.
This, he said, was for schools in East Sepik only.


Tewai-Siassi receives help with logistics

Tewai-Siassi in Morobe finally received help from the Morobe election steering committee (PESC) yesterday to transport their ballot boxes from Siassi Island and Wasu to Sialum for counting, an official said.
Assistant returning officer Lancelot Kamake said the PESC after much consideration took a positive step to see that all boxes and election officials on Siassi Island and Wasu transported early for the counting.
Kamake said there were 10 boxes for the open seat and another 10 for the regional seat, plus assistant returning officer (ARO) and other election officials taken to Sialum by today from Siassi.
“For Wasu, we have 12 ballot boxes for open seat and another 12 for regional seat as well as the election officials to be brought to Sialum,” Kamake said.
He said now that the PESC has engaged a boat from the provincial disaster office in Lae, the boat has left Lae and will take in boxes and officials from Siassi Islands into Sialum by today.
Those boxes in Wasu will also be brought in today.
Kamake said two of their six counting officials were in Lae and were to undergo data training yesterday.
“They will then return to Sialum (today) where they will train the other four.
“Further quality checks will be done on Sunday and we are
confirmed to start counting for Tewai-Siassi open seat by Monday.”
Kamake said if the arrangement was not taken seriously by the PESC, they would face problems.


Dept sets hotline to defend State

Ballot cast … Elis Milila casting her ballot at the Bundi local level government (LLG) of Madang on Monday. The common cry in the mountains of Bundi, Usino-Bundi, Madang, is for service. Ward 15 councillor Vitus Kianunga said his people had been voting to see change for years and hope General Election 2022 would see a difference in leadership from the top down into LLGs – Nationalpic by GLORIA BAUAI

THE Department of Justice and Attorney General (DJAG) has established a legal hotline to support election officials and defend the State after General Elections 2022 (GE22).
Secretary for Justice Dr Eric Kwa said: “Usually it’s the Electoral Commissioner that always goes to court, challenged by a losing candidate.
The State normally plays a nominal role, but this time, we’ll have our lawyers out there to defend the State.”
DJAG has approved a funding of K3million to set up the project and hopes that this funding would continue to help the 72 lawyers in dealing with any election-related concerns or issues.
Speaking during the Nasfund FM100 Talkback Show, Kwa spoke about ways in which his department was helping the Electoral Commission (EC) and its plans to continue helping the EC for the next five years before GE27.
“We started operations on July 5, and although we did not receive a lot of calls in the first week, just recently, we have been receiving a lot of calls from Returning Officers (ROs) in different provinces about counting certain boxes or dealing with complaints,” he said.
He said the hotline was restricted for use by officials from the EC whereby lawyers working in teams, would take calls at any hour of the day to address different issues that could be raised by officials, ROs and assistant returning officers (AROs).
Kwa explained that the (hotline) number was not available to the public because they would not entertain questions from anyone else and that the team of lawyers had an established contact list of all known election managers, ROs and AROs sent to them from the EC.
“The constitution is concerned about two dates: the issue of and return of writs. Within this period, all powers belong to the Electoral Commissioner, so he can defer polling or counting within that period as long as writs are returned on July 29,” he said.
“The State was kind enough to give us K3 million for this project, our lawyers will continue to provide the support with the election petitions after the return of writs.”

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