342 police for NGI polls

 THERE will be 342 police personnel providing security during the local level government elections in the New Guinea Islands region.

This is fewer than the number of policemen and women deployed in the national elections last year, Acting Assistant Commissioner of police for NGI Supt Anthon Billie said yesterday.

“This is due to funding constraints and also police in Manus, New Ireland, West and East New Britain are not expecting major problems during polling and counting in the coming weeks,” he said.

Billie said that Manus would be deploying 56 police officers, New Ireland 92, WNB 114 and ENB would deploy 80 officers as polling begins on Saturday.

“We have been advised by our police headquarters that they will be paying allowances for the police personnel engaged in the elections and costs of fuel, logistics will come from recurrent budgets with support from respective provincial governments and administrations,” he said.

Billie said there had been no reports of election-related violence during the campaign period and this was expected to continue during the polling and counting period.

“If there are any disruptions during this time, we will be on standby to deploy our men to deal with any such situations.”

Billie said with the directive from the chief of operations in Port Moresby, they were advised that there would be no vehicle hire and to utilise police vehicles and fuel wisely.

Most PPCs in the region have confirmed they received instructions from their headquarters this week that allowances for police personnel would be cut down to 14 days.