MP Isifu blames PNG Govt for the chaotic GE22
News that matter in Papua New Guinea
Kevin Isifu and his family at Yawasoro outside Wewak town last Friday heading to go and vote. – Nationalpic by GYNNIE KERO
MP Isifu blames PNG Govt for the chaotic GE22
PORT MORESBY: Wewak MP Kevin Isifu blames the Papua New
Guinea (PNG) Government, not the Electoral Commission (EC), for the sorry state
of conduct of PNG’s General Election 2022 (GE22) nationwide.
“Funding is an important
aspect for conducting GEs and that funding must be released on time.
“I am not blaming the EC
but the government of the day for releasing funds late,” he added.
PNG Cyber Monitor reproduces below the news break and a few GE22 news updates as published by The National:
Isifu: I blame the
govt, not EC
July 13, 2022The
NationalNational
FUNDING is an
important aspect to conducting general elections, Wewak MP Kevin Isifu says.
He added that funding for such national events needed to be released on time.
“I’m not blaming the PNG Electoral Commission, I’m blaming the Government of
the day for releasing funds late,” he said.
“What sort of outcome do you expect after releasing funds late?
“There are service
providers and ward recorders who are still waiting for outstanding payments.
Provincial returning officer(RO) Thaddeus Ulapapik said polling in East Sepik
ended yesterday.
Despite some issues
with the common roll, Ulapapik said counting for the Wewak Open and Regional
seats would start at Moem Barracks tomorrow.
East Sepik election manager James Piapia said returning officers were
responsible for counting venues for each of the six electorates.
“We received a petition from Yangoru-Saussia
candidates, they don’t want counting to be conducted at the Yangoru government
station,” he said.
“They want it moved down to Wewak, the RO has the power to make a decision.”
Network coverage
concerns
July 13, 2022The
NationalNational
By MELYNE BAROI
COMMUNICATION among
the joint security task force in Milne Bay was an issue during the polling
period as many islands the officers were stationed at could not access the
network coverage.
Provincial police commander Superintendent Peter Barkie told The
National that he had not been able to contact the officers directly
until they arrived back in Alotau recently.
“It was worrying as we
had no information of what was happening but upon their return last week I
received very positive reports and that was settling,” he said.
Barkie said the geography of the province had prompted some threats to the
security force.
“Because Milne Bay is the biggest maritime province with a stretch of islands,
we had our water police team on the water to make sure nothing suspicious
happened,” he said.
“There are a number of private islands as well
which we were not permitted to enter so our water police had to keep a close
eye in case something illegal happens.”
Barkie said the all officers from the three electorates returned last week and
were awaiting the return of officers stationed at the Samarai-Murua electorate.
He said there were more than 600 security personnel who took part in General
Election 2022 in the province which was six times the security team they had in
the previous election.
“We have 65 police from the National Capital District and 285 special
constables recruited to join the 75-man police team in Alotau as well as
Correctional Services officers and the defence force,” he said.
“Prior to the commencement of the election, we had issued warning notices to
the so-called gangs who were roaming Alotau and tried to keep the law and order
threats to a minimum which turned to be satisfactory so far,” he said.
Polling extended for
LLG
July 13, 2022The NationalMain Stories
Gulf election manager and returning officer Poevare Tore confirmed the issue
was raised with the electoral commission to use the 2017 common roll as a
supplementary list to conduct polling.
“We received the approval after the Kerema Urban LLG polling was disrupted last
week as many missed out on polling,” he said.
Tore said polling teams for the other nine LLGs were also issued the
supplementary list from 2017 before they left.
“Up to date, the LLGs are using the 2022 common roll, but if names of voters
are not found in that roll, they will use the 2017 so that there won’t be any
more confusion.” he said.
Tore said the extended polling dates, especially for Kerema Urban, gave ample
time for those who had missed out to cast their votes in a one-day polling
approved by the provincial election steering committee.
“The committee has decided to conduct a day’s polling (today) to ensure all
locals from the nine wards of the Urban LLG will gather at town’s basketball
court where the polling station will be set up for the activity,” he said.
Tore said other LLG polling teams were almost done and was looking forward to
the counting.
The only local level governments expected to complete polling by Friday are
Kotidanga, Kaintiba and East and West Kikori LLG areas.
Kairuku ballots set for counting
People camping outside
Murray Barracks in Port Moresby yesterday. Kairuku is the first out of four
electorates in Central to transport their ballot boxes to the counting venue at
Murray Barracks. – Nationalpic by KENNEDY BANI
KAIRUKU was the first
of Central’s four electorates to transport their ballot boxes to the counting
venue in Port Moresby, an official says.
Returning officer Henry Oa said 50 ballot boxes safely arrived at the counting
centre in Murray Barracks on Monday afternoon.
“Twenty-five boxes are for the open seat and the other twenty-five are for the
regional seat,” he said.
“These boxes are locked in a container and the container is in front of the
Murray Barracks gymnasium.”
Oa said counting for Kairuku will commence on Thursday as Tuesday and Wednesday
were days given to officials to prepare.
“On Tuesday, we had a brief, on Wednesday we will conduct training for the
polling officials and on Thursday, counting for Kairuku will begin,” he said.
Oa said during the six days of polling, there were no reports of serious issues
encountered.
“Many villagers missed out on voting and there were many complaints and
arguments between them and the polling officials,” he said.
“There were no serious issues such as election-related violence, the Kairuku
people had a calm polling.”
Oa said polling began in July 4 and ended on July 9.
Manus polling tomorrow, counting in ENB starts
POLLING in Manus commenced on Thursday and is
expected to end next Thursday with counting of ballots starting on Monday,
Commander Chief Insp Kiweri Kesambi says.
“We are giving time to all the polling teams to return to Lorengau before we
start counting the ballots,” he said.
Kesambi said the counting venue for the two seats, Manus provincial and open, would
be conducted at the Lorengau main market.
“Polling in the province had been quiet with no major incident,” he said.
“The only issue we faced was the names of many eligible voters were missing
from the printed common roll.”
While giving the election updates in the province, Kesambi also urged everyone
to respect the counting process and not cause disturbances.
Polling for all the four local level government areas of Balanataman, Kombiu,
Watom Island and Rabaul urban in East New Britain were completed on Friday and
the counting was scheduled for yesterday at the Malaguna Technical Secondary
School hall.
Counting for Kokopo and East New Britain provincial seat also commenced
yesterday, while counting for Gazelle is schedule for tomorrow.
Polling delayed by bad
weather
July 13, 2022The
NationalMain Stories
Western election manager Paul Max told The National that teams
for Bamu local level government in Delta Fly and Olsobip in North Fly district
had yet to conduct polling.
Max said due to heavy rain and bad weather, the teams had not been able to
reach Bamu and Olsobip areas.
“We tried sending out teams on chopper and the fixed wing aircraft but bad
weather prevented them from getting in.
“The teams for Olsobip tried flying out of Tabubil to those villages but were
unsuccessful so I have recalled them to Kiunga to make another attempt.
“We are confident that we will still complete polling within the given time
despite the delay,” Max said.
Meanwhile, polling for the Star Mountain LLG, Balimo in Middle Fly and Normad
and Lake Murray in South Fly had been completed and the boxes had been taken to
Kiunga and locked away in the police station.
Max said six teams in Morehead, South Fly LLG have completed polling while
others were still in the process of conducting polling.
He said most teams were expected to complete polling by this week Friday and
counting was expected to start soon after.
Max said three counting venues had been selected because of the difficulties of
getting all the teams into one location.
He added that counting for Middle Fly and North Fly would be held in Kiunga,
Delta Fly in Balimo and South Fly in Daru.
“Despite the delays due to weather, I am confident that our teams will complete
polling on time for counting to proceed.
“The teams will undergo training before they start of counting, most likely at
the weekend,” he said.
Voting allowed for settlers despite missing names
A settler of
Whitehouse settlement in Moresby North-West electorate casting his vote at the
polling station in Hohola. – Nationalpic By BEVERLY PETER
PEOPLE in one of the
six Moresby North-West ward seven polling sites in Hohola cast their votes
despite not having their names on the common roll.
The Whitehouse settlement residents did this after arguing with polling
officers regarding an apparent mix up of names on common roll and limited
ballot papers.
The polling station was for people living at the Whitehouse settlement between
Hohola and Tokorara.
Whitehouse community leader Michael Waikele said their voting population was
between 600 and 700 but the electoral official brought only 200 ballot papers.
“Many of us who have been living here for more than 20 years got names on the
common roll and voted in the last election but were told not to vote in this
election.”
Man angered over missing name on roll
ON Friday, residents
of Paga Hill and Town were angry that their names were not on the Moresby South
ward two common roll at the Town police station.
Paga Hill resident Johnson Eric said his name was not on the roll even though
he had voted at the police station in the past three general elections.
“I voted here during the 2007, 2012, and 2017 general elections, however, for
the 2022 general election, my name is not on the Moresby South common roll,” he
said.
“My name is on the roll for Moresby North-East at the 6-Mile rugby field,” he
added.
Eric said despite the relocation of Paga Hill settlers to 6-Mile his name was
still on the Moresby South roll.
UPNG students vote using IDs because names not
on common roll
By MELYNE BAROI
STUDENT voters at the
University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) voted using their student identification
cards (ID) as some names were not in the common roll.
This was followed by information given by the assistant returning officer
Hubert Sipa that they had only 1,500 ballot papers available for that section
of Ward 10 in the Moresby North-West district.
“We are working with the numbers we have from the common roll and if anyone
does not have their name on it then it’s not our fault,” Sipa said.“We set up a
voters registration site in the university campus last Wednesday but no one
turned up to confirm names or even register,” he added.
However, some students disputed this claiming they were not at fault and
demanded to vote using their ID cards even though their names were not on the
roll.
Final year medical student Kingsford Yakapun said missing names in common rolls
showed a lack of competency by the Papua New Guinea Electoral Commission.
“The Electoral Commission cannot be telling us that it is our fault that our
names are not on the common roll as they have the upper hand in information
collection and liaising with the university through the registrar would have
solved this problem ages ago,” he said.
“Our registration information at the university is enough to get us registered
on the common roll and I don’t see why we should have to spend time and money
on doing something that the Electoral Commission is being paid to do as that is
unfair.”
UPNG student representative council president Melvin Tinol said that the
university had no information of the recent set-up for voters registration.
“According to my interaction with the UPNG registrar, voters registration forms
were made available at the campus in January this year,” he said.
“We had no information on the recent set-up and that is unfortunate for the
student and staff.”
Sipa said his team had allowed students to vote using their IDs as was done in
the previous general election and last year’s by-election.
“As per the requirement provided by the Election Commission, university
students across the country who have lived on campus for more than six months
can vote using their ID cards,” he said.
Some former students of UPNG also turned up to vote at the university.
Comments
Post a Comment