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Candidate refused bail
GOROKA District Court
yesterday refused bail for a candidate arrested for allegedly
interrupting polling in Goroka.
Police apprehended the candidate (named) during polling on Monday
at the Rotary Park polling booth at West Goroka for allegedly
interrupting a peaceful polling.
He was charged and was released on K300 bail, but when he appeared
before the Goroka District Court for mention yesterday, the police
prosecution objected to his bail.
The objection was made because the candidate had another pending
charge in court.
He will come before the court again on Aug 13.
No polling yet in Ihu village
GULF provincial police commander inspector Heni Vagi has been
negotiating with villagers since Tuesday to allow polling officers
to conduct polling at Harevavo village in Ihu.
Mr Vagi was there after Harevavo villagers attempted to chase the
polling officers, having discovered that their names were not on
the common roll.
Polling there had since been disrupted.
However, polling in the remote mountains of Kotidango, Kakoro and
Kamina areas were progressing well despite starting late due to
bad weather.
Polling in these areas is likely to be completed by today.
Central, Kairuku-Hiri count today
By HARLYNE JOKU
COUNTING for Central Regional and Kairuku-Hiri electorate is set
to start at 6pm today at Murray Barracks, Central election manager
Yapino Mango has confirmed.
He said yesterday that the venue was being prepared with a back-up
generator provided by the PNG Defence Force to counter the
continuous blackouts being experienced in the nation’s capital.
Mr Mango said a briefing for counting officials would be held at
9am today with counting to follow in the evening and to proceed
tomorrow and on Sunday.
He said the Abau and Rigo electorate would follow next Monday
while Goilala, still polling, would be counted at Goldie Barracks.
Mr Mango appealed for patience amongst polling and counting
officials of Central province, saying their allowances would be
settled by today.
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Court grants man bail
BAIL is a constitutional right for
persons accused and in remand, and can be refused due to the
nature of the case or granted at the discretion of the court.
National Court judge Panuel Mogish made this comment on Wednesday
when the court decided to grant bail to a man charged for one
count of causing grievous bodily harm, assault and murder.
The charges stem from late last year when the accused, Clement
Kien Lipu, allegedly led a group of men to a trade store at Morata
in Port Moresby, where the accused confronted the store keeper
about some grievances.
An argument ensued, leaving the store keeper dead, and another
person suffering head injuries after a beer bottle was smashed on
his head.
Lipu is alleged to have had in his possession a firearm which was
used during the incident last Dec 23.
Lipu is now out on a K600 court bail with conditions that he must
not leave the vicinity of NCD unless given leave of court.
He also has to report to the Waigani District Court registry every
Mondays and Wednesdays and appear in court during the course of
his trial.
Parents
concern over
counting
By VERONICA MANUK
COUNTING of votes in East New Britain province should be done at
night so that classes in three schools are not disrupted.
ENB provincial election manager Abraham Wari said the election
steering committee would meet to decide if the counting would have
to go through the night and over the weekend to speed up the
process as they were concerned about the children in those
schools.
Mr Wari raised this after parents of students in three schools in
East New Britain whose classrooms were being used for vote
counting expressed concern that the learning process of their
children was being put in jeopardy.
The three schools are Kokopo primary school, Kokopo secondary and
Maltech high school.
Awesa withdraws
‘stop-count’ petition
BUSINESSMAN Francis Awesa has
withdrawn an application for a court order to stop the counting of
certain ballot boxes in the Imbongu Open electorate.
Counsel Peter Puri Siminzi told Justice Mark Sevua yesterday that
his client, who is contesting the seat, wished to withdraw the
matter.
He was then advised to file an affidavit to quit the proceedings.
It is understood that Mr Awesa is currently leading in the ballots
counted so far in Mendi.
On Wednesday, Justice Sevua ruled that the National Court did not
have the powers to intervene in the conduct of the elections.
He said if a candidate had a grievance, the person should file an
election petition.
Yesterday, all morning court proceedings were adjourned to the
afternoon due a fault with the National Court registry's
generator.
Sources told The National that technicians managed to fix the
fault and hearings were conducted as planned.
Most parts of the city have been affected by a power shutdown by
PNG Power workers, who are demanding a reinstatement of certain
allowances.
Nebilyer
candidate attacked
A STARS Alliance Party candidate in
Tambul-Nebilyer area was chased away
from his villages along with his immediate family members by
supporters of a rival candidate.
Peter Suam alleged yesterday that the supporters of the other
candidate mobilised and rampaged through his Kamaga village last
Monday.
He said they attacked his uncle Ninig Korowi with bush knives,
wounding him in his right arm and chest.
He was now recuperating at the Togoba health centre.
Gulf police to beef up security
GULF police are expected to beef up
security for ballot boxes and polling officials in the province
after some dissatisfied eligible voters at Ihu reportedly tried to
chase away the officials after they found that their names were
not on the common roll.
Provincial police commander Insp Heni Vagi confirmed the report,
adding if the members of the polling team affected by the incident
decided to relocate, they would be allowed.
However, if they decided to remain at Ihu, Insp Vagi said more
police officers would need to be deployed to the area for the
security of ballot boxes, papers and polling officials.
He said polling was still continuing at Malalaua, while Kotindanga
and Baimuru were to start yesterday.
Okapa man gets six years in jail
A MAN from Okapa in the Eastern
Highlands was jailed for six years for armed robbery by the
National Court on Wednesday.
In passing his sentence, Justice Panuel Mogish told Yanin Yavigona,
27, that depending on the circumstances of the crime, the court
could jail him for life.
He said robbery had become prevalent in Port Moresby.
Earlier, Yavigona admitted to holding up some people in the city
on Dec 17 last year together with some others.
They were armed with two home-made guns and bush knives.
They had threatened the victims before making off with the
victims’ car and about K2,200 cash.
The court heard that Yavigona regretted his action and had helped
police identify the homes of his accomplices.
He also said that the victims were not harmed.
Justice Mogish, however, ruled that the offence was planned and
that weapons, which were never recovered by the police, were used.
He ordered the prison sentence to run from Jan 1, 2007, the date
of arrest.
Three walk out of court as free
men
THREE men, including an Asian, were
accused of conspiring to steal a cargo container at the Port
Moresby wharf three years ago, have been acquitted by the National
Court in Waigani.
Justice Panuel Mogish ruled that the prosecutor had failed to
provide sufficient evidence to link the accused to the theft on
July 1, 2004.
He then ordered that Kerera John Maika, John Jack Beno and Kevin
He Kai be released.
They were alleged to have planned to steal a container with 1,850
cartons of canned food worth of K174,000 and several axes worth
K57,600, a total amount of K231,600, from the wharf.
The goods belonged to Narue Agencies Ltd and Brian Bell Ltd.
Last week, their counsel made a no-case submission to the court.
No blackout in NGI
PNG Power employees in the New Guinea
Island are not in support of any stop work that would disrupt the
election process.
A senior PNG Power officer in the region said it was evident that
the PNG Power Employees Union had agreed to pull the plug as a way
of sabotaging the election process to convince their employer to
listen to their four grievances.
PNG Power officials in other towns in the region are in the dark
about the issue behind the walk-out.
Mapusa is acting director of
Narcotics
THE National Executive Council has
appointed John Mapusa as the acting director-general of the
National Narcotics Bureau.
The decision was made on June 25, in which Mr Mapusa would serve
as the acting director for three months and will facilitate the
appointment of a new director-general.
Mr Mapusa said his first mission was to put aside all differences
under his administration and would restore the defunct
organisation with its entire staff before implementing the NEC
directives for structural and administrative reforms.
Agro workshop set for Lae
LAE is expecting an influx of top
level experts from all over the Pacific who are attending a
two-day workshop on agriculture in the region.
The workshop will take place on July 16-17 at the Sir Alkan Tololo
Research Centre outside Lae.
The Crawford School of Economics and Government of the Australian
National University and PNG’s National Agricultural Research
Institute (NARI) are hosting this regional meeting, which will
discuss various aspects of the development of agriculture in the
Pacific.
The rationale for the workshop is the belief that agriculture
should be able to play a much greater role in raising the living
standards of the people of the Pacific island countries,
especially the vast majority who earn their livelihood from
agricultural production.
The two-day event will have more than 50 experts from Pacific
island countries such as Solomon Islands, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa,
Australia and PNG participating.
More than 15 papers will be presented by scientists and experts
from both PNG and abroad.
 
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