Milfred Wangatau out on K6,000 court bail

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Milfred Wangatau out on K6,000 court bail

PORT MORESBY: Wabag General Election 2022 (GE22) candidate Milfred Wangatau (Independent), who was arrested and charged with murder, is out on K6,000 court bail.

Enga commander Supt George Kakas said Wangatau had surrendered his licensed gun which as one of the bail conditions.

On Sunday (June 26, 2022), Wangatau’s election campaign supporters clashed with Fisheries and Marine Resources Minister Dr Lino Tom’s supporters.

One of Tom’s supporters was shot dead in the fracas, another was injured.

Read this earlier report for context: https://pngcybermonitor.blogspot.com/2022/06/wabag-candidate-milfred-wangatau-nabbed.html (Wabag candidate Milfred Wangatau nabbed for murder)

The National reported a news update:



Candidate out on bail

July 1, 2022The NationalMain Stories

By GYNNIE KERO
ENGA police commander Supt George Kakas says Wabag Open candidate Milfred Wangatau charged with murder is out on a K6,000 court bail.
He said one of the bail conditions was for Wangatau to surrender his licensed gun which he did.
Kakas said an election campaign supporter was shot dead and another injured in a fight between Wangatau’s men and Fisheries and Marine Resources Minister Dr Lino Tom’s supporters in Wabag.
Kakas said case would return to court next month.
Last Sunday night, Tom’s supporters were walking home after watching the State of Origin Game 2 in Wabag.
Kakas said they began chanting and causing disturbance near Wangatau’s house.
Exchanges of stones, punches and gun shots between the two factions led to one dead and another injured.
Kakas said parked his car in the midst of everything trying to diffuse the situation.
“I caught a stone on my chest, leaving a bruise, even three bullets whisked past me,” he said.
“Eventually, I managed to get reinforcements from the mobile squad.”
Kakas said that Wangatau after being released from custody, appealed to his supporters for peace as polling starts across the country next week.
Question on whether Wangatau would still be allowed to contest the general election, the provincial police commander said by law he was allowed to contest as the charges against him were yet to be proven in court.
“Only when a court of competent jurisdiction, which is the National Court, finds him guilty and convicts him, then he cannot contest,” he said.


Lack of services prompts woman to run for Gumine seat

RUN-down State assets and lack of public service in Chimbu’s Gumine has prompted Bernadette Bibi Olmi to contest the district seat in General Election 2022 (GE22).
Olmi, the only woman among more than 30 candidates, including incumbent Gumine MP Nick Kuman, vying for the seat, wanted to use her experiences in the public and private sectors to ensure political governance could be managed transparently to improve people’s lives.
From the Kibaku in Dirima village, the independent candidate was married to Amb Aiwa Olmi, a former ambassador and current chairman for Water PNG, who is also from Gumine.
She was the strength behind her husband’s prominence and success over the years.
“I have seen lack of public services in the district,” she said.
“We will take back Gumine and ensure public servants are operating in the district to service our people and not operating in settlements, guest houses in Kundiawa as this is the case now.” Olmi wanted to resuscitate deteriorating State assets, including state land in the district at the headquarters and the sub-stations in Omkolai and Karamaril.
“We will do proper physical planning on Government assets and build infrastructure like housing for all public servants,” she said.


Soheke urges Ombudsman to fast track process

MOROBE election manager Simon Soheke has urged the Ombudsman Commission to fast track the process to clear funds so election schedules can be implemented as planned.
Soheke said Morobe had sufficient money to conduct election activities, thanks to a K3 million allocation from its provincial government but it needed its state allocated funding to be released.
“Morobe is fortunate compared to other provinces that received little to no funding at all from their provincial governments,” he said.
“Our only issue for now is with OC through whom our cheques must go through for clearance; that’s the normal process and procedure to stop abuse of public funds.
“Our concern, however, is that they should fast track this process because election runs on a tight schedule that must not be delayed.”
Soheke thanked the Morobe government for increasing the election funding from K2 million in 2017 to K3 million for General Election 2022.
“Running the election is the responsibility of the Electoral Commission but the province has done a great thing to counter-fund; this money will go to cover all our shortfalls,” he said.


Probe into shooting continues

By JIMMY KALEBE
WHILE post-mortem for two men shot at Munum village outside Lae in a General Election 2022 (GE22)-related confrontation last month is complete, the final report may take time to compile, police say.
Morobe police commander Supt Jacob Singura said after much delay the post-mortem of the two men allegedly gunned down on May 26 following a confrontation between supporters of two political parties was completed.
Singura said according to the police crime investigation division officer in-charge, the medical report identified that the bodies had a pellet each.
“The pellets have been taken out and will be sent to Port Moresby for forensic ballistic test to determine which type of weapon was used to discharge them,” he said.
Singura said the other thing was to identify the actual weapon used to discharge the pellets.
“At this stage, we do not have access to that weapon but we know which type of weapon was responsible,” he said.
Singura said this may take a bit longer to further identify the weapon responsible and then send that weapon to Port Moresby again for forensic ballistic test to confirm the weapon was used at the time of shooting.
“That is why I am saying that the investigations into the shooting of the two men at Munum may take a bit long before it is completed to actually identify the suspects involved and then have them arrested and brought before the court.”
Morobe rural commander Chief Insp John Daviaga said police had not yet recovered the weapon that was used.
“This is another thing that police have to check properly and with the autopsy report, together with evidences collected, we have to form a concrete basis in order to press charge or charge someone police deemed as suspects to the crime,” he said.
Daviaga said with the polling coming up, this may also delay the compilation of the report.

EC: Ballot papers to be destroyed

July 1, 2022The NationalMain Stories

BALLOT papers of the seven electorates that were split by the Government in May creating seven new ones will be destroyed publicly tomorrow, Electoral Commissioner Simon Sinai says.
He said ballot papers of the seven electorates were delivered to Port Moresby on April 3-4 and had been locked away in a container.
“The papers will be destroyed in the presence of the media, security personnel and other key stakeholders including officials from the Australian High Commission,” he said.
Sinai said when parliament voted to create the new electorates and having them certified to be included in the General Election 2022 they had already printed the ballot papers for only 111 electorates.
“We had to request assistance from Australia again through their High Commissioner Jon Philp to cater for the increasing number of electorates,” he said.
He acknowledged Australia for reprinting the ballot papers.
“We appreciate the opportunity to work with them through the Australian Electoral Commission.”
He said the affected electorates were: Komo-Margarima in Hela, Laigaip-Porgera in Enga, South Fly in Western, Kairuku-Hiri in Central, Sohe in Northern, Wau-Bulolo in Morobe and Talasea in WNB.
“The seven newly-created electorates are: Komo-Hulia, Porgera-Paiela, Delta-Fly, Hiri-Koiari, Popondetta, Wau-Waria and Nakanai,” Sinai added
Sinai said about 1,305 ballot papers would be appropriately destroyed
He added that speculation that the ballot papers would be hijacked were untrue.


ENB praised for peaceful election period

Assistant Commissioner of Police New Guinea Islands (NGI) Command Perou N’dranou (middle) inspecting a parade during the launch of security operations for General Election 2022 (GE22) in Kokopo, East New Britrain, on Wednesday. – Picture supplied

By MICHAEL PHILIP
ASSISTANT Commissioner of Police (ACP) New Guinea Islands (NGI) Command Perou N’dranou says free, fair and safe elections depend on the public behaviour.
“It’s not about us (security forces), it’s about the people,” he said.
N’dranou said he had stressed on the need for people to take personal responsibility for their actions and the decisions they made and this would go a long way to ensuring a freer, fairer and safer election.
“People must behave.
For NGI it’s a good sign for us as we are seeing a peaceful election process. We are just here to ensure that they continue to uphold and respect the election process,” N’dranou said at the launch of security operations for General Election 2022 (GE22) in Kokopo on Wednesday.
He said the country had already experienced violence, chaos and disruptions in some electorates and it was now time for voters to take stock of their actions and behave responsibly.
He told The National that NGI, and especially ENB had shown a good example in terms of respecting the electoral process.


Former MP aims to win back trust of people in Namatanai

By HELEN TARAWA
FORMER Namatanai MP Byron Chan says he is recontesting the seat under the People’s Progress Party (PPP) he held for three consecutive terms to earn back the trust of the people.
Chan, the eldest son of New Ireland Governor and former Prime Minister Sir Julius Chan, said the people had asked him to stand to take back their land.
“The people of Namatanai want their land which was taken from them in the last five years, returned,” he said.
“We want to take back the land belonging to the people that was taken from them.”
Chan, who was Namatanai MP for three terms (2002-07; 2007-12; 2012-17), said the people wanted to participate in making Namatanai a better place.
“Instead of the hate and animosity that’s being created in Namatanai, we need a new government and new prime minister to clean the system.”


Commissioner explains payment issue for GE17

THE PNG Electoral Commissioner Simon Sinai says any member of the police force involved in any election is paid by the Royal Papua New Guinean Constabulary (RPNGC) and not the Electoral Commission.
He said this in his response to concerns raised by more than 100 members of the East Sepik Auxiliary Police engaged in General Election 2017 (GE17).
Sinai told The National that any query on outstanding payments or allowances that were election related should be raised with the police department.
“The Electoral Commission cannot respond to that when police have their own separate funding for elections,” he said.
Sinai clarified that since police had their separate funding for elections, they looked after their own police personnel.
Meanwhile, Sinai advised that all allowances owed to the data processing officers around the country would be paid.
He said he had not been made aware of any complaints regarding outstanding allowances for officers but confirmed that payments had been made.
“Sorting out payments for these officers is not easy,” he said.
Sinai said a good number of them did not have existing bank accounts which made it challenging for their electoral offices at the provincial level to sort their allowances on time.
The electoral commissioner said that was something that he would follow up with all electoral offices in the country to ensure that all data processing officers who had helped in the updating of the common roll were paid.







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