Molou sees problems with LPV

By GABRIEL FITO
SANDAUN provincial police commander Chief Inspector Richard Molou has expressed concerned that violence between rival candidates and their supporters may erupt during the counting period as most people have not understood yet the new limited preferential voting (LPV) system.
He said that due to its location where almost all electorate are only accessible by aircraft and days of walking by foot, the bulk of the Sandaun
people had not received adequate awareness on LPV.
Mr Molou had predicted that election-related violence, especially during the counting, was imminent.
He said there would be a lot of informal votes during the counting as some people would choose the same candidate for all their three preferences while some would give one to the candidate of their choice leaving blank the second and third preferences on the ballot paper.
He said this was because all candidates in the province were now campaigning only for the first choice while the importance of the second and third preferences had been overlooked.
Mr Molou made these remarks following a clash between supporters of two rival candidates for the Vanimo Green Open electorate last weekend.
Mr Molou, who was personally at the scene, fired a few warning shots and managed to calm down the situation.
But he believed incidents of similar nature might resurface during counting.
Meanwhile, a man suffered injuries after a vehicle he was driving collided head-on with another one in Vanimo on Saturday evening.
Mr Molou said one of the vehicles involved was hired by a candidate for campaign purposes.

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