46 parties to contest election

FORTY-SIX political parties have been registered so far to contest next year’s general election, political parties registrar Dr Alphone Gelu says.
Dr Gelu said 25 of the parties have MPs.
“I do expect all 46 parties to put up candidates in 2022,” he said.
“However, we did have issues in 2017 when registered parties didn’t endorse any candidate at all.”
Dr Gelu said registered parties that had MPs were: Pangu (30); People’s National Congress (14); National Alliance (10); United Labour (9); United Resources (8); People’s Party (4); People’s Progress (4); Our Development (3); National (2); Social Democratic (2); PNG Country (1); People’s Labour (1); PNG Party (1); Melanesian Liberal (1); Coalition for Reform (1); People’s Movement of Change (1); People’s Democratic (1); United (1); People’s One Nation (1), Allegiance Party (1); Melanesian (1); People’s Action (1); People’s First (1); and, PNG Greens (1).
Meanwhile, Moresby Northwest returning officer Desmond Timiyaso said counting for the by-election was still in the quality-checking process.
“We are now doing quality checking for ward one (Hanuabada) and we still have boxes in ward 10 to do,” he said.
“We have completed ward 11, ward seven and ward eight. After quality checking, we will go to elimination.”