Rabaul MP Dr Allan Marat bows out gentlemanly, accepts 3-vote defeat
News that matter in Papua New Guinea
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
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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