Polye slams counting officials

National

OPPOSITION leader Don Polye is frustrated with delays in counting the Kandep open seat votes in Enga.
Polye blamed counting officials for the slowness in completing the counting and claimed at a media conference on Saturday that the remaining 23 boxes to be counted were from his stronghold areas.
He alleged the counting officials were intentionally delaying the 23 boxes.
“Since the counting started, it was progressing very fast for the first 50 boxes or so but for the later potion of ballot boxes – about 21 or 23 – the counting started to slow down and was delayed,” he said.
“I don’t know whether it is a plan or coincided thing that when the counting came to the last 23 boxes, then it started to slow down because all these 23 boxes contain votes from my base-vote areas.”
He claimed that boxes counted first came from the PNC candidate’s stronghold.
“Despite disputes that were put up by me and the other candidates, about five of these 50 boxes being hijacked, these disputes were not taken into consideration by the returning officer and counting officials in the counting room,” Polye said.
“However, when counting came to the remaining 23 boxes, which are the boxes of my stronghold areas, the counting officials and the returning officer started addressing minor issues in detail which slowed down the counting,” Polye said.
“I could not allow that to happen because it is absolutely unfair, and there are no justified grounds to rejecting some of these boxes or delaying some of them or all of them to be counted.”