Rabaul MP Dr Allan Marat bows out gentlemanly, accepts 3-vote defeat

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Dr Allan Marat - the gentleman politician

Rabaul MP Dr Allan Marat bows out gentlemanly, accepts 3-vote defeat

PORT MORESBY: Four-term Rabaul MP Dr Allan Marat (Melanesian Liberal Party) was toppled by Pangu Pati’s Graham Piniau Rumet by three votes.

Marat polled 5,189 votes, three short of Rumet’s 5,192.

Marat, a lawyer-turned-politician, who has served Rabaul for 20 years was gracious in defeat.

He gentlemanly accepted the results and is not asking for a recount.

Marat and Rumet’s supporters celebrated the announcement of the results.

That’s peace and civility for all politicians and Papua New Guineans to adhere to, unlike violence and killings in many other electorates.

PNG Cyber Monitor reproduces below the news break and a few General Election 2022 news updates as published by The National:

 

Rumet unseats Marat

July 20, 2022The NationalMain Stories

PANGU Party candidate Graham Piniau Rumet has unseated Melanesian Liberal Party leader Dr Allan Marat in the race for the Rabaul Open seat in East New Britain.
Marat was Rabaul’s representative in Parliament for the last four terms.
Rumet scored the narrowest of electoral victories edging veteran Marat by just three votes.
After the seventh and final exclusion at 4.10pm yesterday Rumet had scored 5,192 votes while Marat had 5,189.
United Labour Party candidate Raymond Paulias bowed out of the contest at the sixth exclusion with a total of 3,447 votes that were distributed to Marat and Rumet.
Returning officer Babel Umri when declaring Rumet at 5pm, commended the candidates and their supporters for their conduct which had seen a peaceful election in the electorate.
Rumet acknowledged his family’s support and his Christian faith for making his victory possible.
“I would like to thank my wife and five children for supporting my goals to stand for the elections,” Rumet said.
He thanked his fellow candidates for putting up a good race saying as the new member-elect, he needed their support in restoring Rabaul.
He thanked former MP Marat for all he had done for the district.
“This win is dedicated to loyal supporters of Rabaul for their perseverance and plight. “Today marks a change for Rabaul,” he said.
ENB administrator and provincial election steering committee (PESC) chairman Wilson Matava congratulated Rumet as the new member-elect and thanked election and security officials that had supported the work of the PNG Electoral Commission.
Matava said the provincial administration would continue to support Rabaul and the other districts of ENB to ensure their district development authorities continued to serve the people.


Stranded teams airlifted out of Walium to complete polling

USINO-Bundi returning officer Terence Baiyo says his district has the last three teams to complete polling this week and counting should start by Saturday.
He confirmed that the three stranded teams were airlifted out of Walium station on Monday and had started polling.
“They should have three days to poll since going in on Monday,” he said.
“We have one of the earlier teams also awaiting extraction, so if we get all these four out by Thursday back to Walium, we can prepare the counting venue and start counting on Saturday.”
Baiyo said counting would be at the new Walium Stadium but there was still a lack of counting materials.
“At this stage, we cannot set up the venue as there are no materials,” he said.
“We don’t have funding to do so; we must be given sufficient funding in advance to address all needs and issues during counting.
“We have to pay counting officials upfront as well. We don’t want any hiccups causing unnecessary delays for counting.”


Huon Gulf count into elimination

THE counting for the Huon Gulf open seat in Morobe went into elimination yesterday afternoon after quality checks by local level governments on Monday.
Returning officer Daniel Wasinak said quality checks were done in LLGs of Morobe, Salamaua, Wampar rural and urban.
“We started with first exclusion this afternoon (yesterday).
“Candidates with the least number of votes were eliminated, and the count will continue until when we reach the absolute majority plus one. If exclusion goes well we might declare the member-elect for Huon Gulf today,” Wasinak said.
He said there were 30 candidates who had contested the seat including two women.
After quality checks the top five candidates were: Jason Peter (United Resources Party) with 13,550 votes, followed by sitting MP Ross Seymour (National Alliance) on 11,418, John Kasu (independent) 4,374, Tukape Masani (United Labour Party) 3,479 and fifth place was Issac Amu Nahol (Peoples National Congress) with 2,080 votes.
Before exclusions, the total ballot papers were 49,086 with 46,982 formal ballots and 2,104 informal ballots.


Bogia returning officer denies claims of tampering with boxes

By GLORIA BAUAI
Bogia returning officer Cyril Retaw has denied allegations of tampering with four ballot boxes for the district.
This information was relayed to the media by Madang administrator Frank Lau while giving an update of election activities in the province. Lau alleged that the last four boxes of the district were picked up by Retaw and when brought to Bogia Police Station after about four hours all their lids open.
“I was there personally with security personnel and the province legal officer at the police station and saw a brown Land-Cruiser reversed-parked next to the cell block and in it, all four boxes had no lids on them,” he said.
Lau said police would investigate what had happened as it was suspicious and a breach of trust.
Retaw confirmed his vehicle had picked up the four boxes but he was not in the vehicle at the time.
“I was at my village to vote and had given my vehicle to assist the electoral officials transport the ballot boxes back to the cell, which is rightfully my role as the RO,” he said.
“I did not at any one time touch those boxes nor did I tamper with them in anyway.
“All the boxes are stored in the police cell block here at the station awaiting counting; if there is an issue, scrutineers and candidates can disqualify this box or follow the process through the court of disputed returns.”
Madang election manager Sponsa Navi also dismissed the allegation as speculation.
He said the province was getting ready for counting this week.

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