Legal team investigates ballot box

National

A LEGAL team from the PNG Electoral Commission is looking into a ballot box in Central Bougainville that was disputed by scrutineers.
Bougainville acting election manager Desmond Timiyaso said yesterday the dispute reached his office this week following allegations raised by scrutineers that the ballot box for team 42 contained double votes.
He said the legal team was addressing the issue to allow the ballots to be counted.
He said apart from this, counting has progressed well in South Bougainville and Central Bougainville which stared counting on Monday.
North Bougainville began counting on Tuesday at 6pm.
Counting for South Bougainville is taking place at Buin Vocational Centre, Central Bougainville at Tubukas Primary School and North Bougainville at Hutjena Secondary School.
Central Bougainville has completed 19 out of 49 counts, South Bougainville has had 34 out of 72 and North Bougainville 11 out of 66 counts. Timiyaso said there have been no major hiccups at the counting centres.
Security personnel were closely monitoring the process and the people were taking ownership of the counting process conducting it peacefully, he added.