Election law not best for PNG

Letters

I want to support the call made by Joseph Kobol and other regional candidates of Southern Highlands to abolish section 175 of the organic law which deals with special circumstances.
The current governor of SHP was elected under this law and therefore does not represent the majority of the SHP population.
The people of SHP want their governor to be elected by them and not the system because the system can be manipulated to benefit a person or a group.
Prior to the declaration, the supporters of the leading candidate rushed into the counting centre at Mendi Momei Oval to disrupt the counting process resulting in the death of one of the supporters of another candidate.
The disruption to the election process resulted in the counting being moved from the SHP headquarter to Western Highlands Province because of security and safety concerns. This was a poor excuse because the police and army were doing a good job.
The change in the counting venue didn’t go down well with most of the SHP people but since their candidates agreed they followed them.
The majority of us don’t recognise this governor because we feel that the election process was hijacked.
The chaos in Mendi is the result of that foolish decision by the electoral commissioner.

Tim Smith
EHP