Call for unity made as Eastern Highlands hands over writ

Highlands

EASTERN Highlands acting provincial administrator Samson Akunai hopes that the province’s nine MPs will work together over the next five years.
Akunai, the chairman of the provincial election steering committee, said during the handing over of the writ for Eastern Highlands Regional seat to Electoral Commissioner Patilias Gamato that the province had been disadvantaged because its nine MPs had worked in isolation during the last term of Parliament.
“Eastern Highlands is the second largest province in the country and we have nine members in Parliament. Morobe has 10,” Akunai told The National.
“I’ve been emphasising during the declaration of the eight MPs at National Sports Institute in Goroka that we should learn from the past, and use that experience to chart a way forward.
“The province has been suffering. In terms of the national economy ranking, Eastern Highlands sits at the bottom.”
This is simply due to the lack of unity among the nine MPs.
“I’m telling them that we should use this opportunity in the 2017 election to work as a team – from Kassam Pass all the way to Mangiro (border with Chimbu), border of Madang to the border of Morobe, Gulf and Chimbu. Let’s work for our people.”