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No good reasons to defer election
THE presence of firearms in the Highlands provinces and the likelihood
of their use in election violence is not a good enough reason to defer
the general election or extend the life of this Parliament, Deputy Prime
Minister Don Polye said.
And he accused Highlands leaders; Lagaip/Porgera MP Kappa Yarka, whose
parliamentary committee was pushing for the delay of the election, and
governors Peter Ipatas and Hami Yawari for not doing enough to curb
violence in their provinces.
Mr Polye said only the Electoral Commission could ask the Government to
defer the elections if there were serious problems with the common roll.
Even then they had to consult the Constitution, he said.
“In my view, the only reason why such a thing would be possible is not
because of build up of guns or all those reasons that Mr Yarka stated,”
Mr Polye said on Monday.
“If elections fail in Southern Highlands, it has failed. If elections
fail in Enga, it has failed. We are not going to extend. The rest of PNG
is not going to be tied down because two or three provinces failed. The
elections must go on as scheduled. The only concern is if there are
problems raised by the commission, particularly on the electoral roll.
“The Government must ensure that every voter in PNG is given the
opportunity to vote. The enrolment of voters is very important. In East
Sepik for instance, only 160,000 names were enrolled out of 300,000 to
400,000 people of the province.”
He said the Government was concerned about this and has consulted the
Electoral Commissioner Andrew Trawen.
“If you have some people in electorates, who are being denied their
rights to vote, that is unfair. So we will be conducting an assessment
by the Electoral Commission. But not the reasons Mr Yarka gave. People
like him, Mr Ipatas and Mr Yawari should be controlling law and order in
their areas. They should be on the ground doing this, ” Mr Polye said.
PNG Party leader Sir Mekere Morauta accused the Government of doing
nothing about the build up of guns and lawlessness in parts of the
country.
“What has the Government been doing for the last five years? The
build-up of arms has not happened in the last few weeks. If this
Government remains, what are they going to do anyway, most probably
nothing? They did nothing to implement the recommendations of the
Review by Eminent Commonwealth Group on the last election. So what would
justify continuation of this Government?” Sir Mekere asked.
 
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