Governor-General invites PNC to form government

National

GOVERNOR-General Sir Bob Dadae last Friday invited the People’s National Congress party to form the government as it had won the most seats by any party.
He extended the invitation after receiving the writs for 80 of the 111 seats from Electoral Commissioner Patilias Gamato at Government House. The PNC had won 25 of the 80, followed by the National Alliance party on 13.
Gamato said that as of 3.30pm on Friday when he presented the writs, 88 of the 111 seats had been declared although he had received only 80.
He said under Section 63 of the Organic Law on Integrity of Political Parties and Candidates 2013, PNC had won the largest number of seats in the 2017 election.
He accordingly asked Sir Bob to call on the party’s official Joseph Kup to receive the invitation on behalf of the party.
Sir Bob then proceeded to invite the PNC to form the government. Party leader Peter O’Neill later joined the ceremony.
Gamato later told the media of the extension for the return of writs to today.
“I will allow those electorates still counting to continue counting  until they declare their members-elect,” he said. “The reason is that elections in this country are not cheap. It costs the government a lot of money to run elections and candidates to campaign.
“To be fair on everyone, I had to make that decision. Under the law, the head-of-state can only extend (return of writs) once.”