After five months, Parkop declared winner

By AILEEN KWARAGU
NATIONAL Capital District (NCD) Governor Powes Parkop has retained the seat he first won in 2007, beating runner-up Andy Bawa by more than 20,000 votes in the General Election 2022 (GE22).
NCD election manager Kila Ralai said Parkop, the leader of the Social Democratic Party, polled 78,566 votes to Bawa’s (Independent) 57,647 votes.
He said Parkop’s victory was based on merit, and that it was a great race between him and the other 28 candidates.
Parkop said he would continue development plans for the capital city.
“The city has been (like a) glue of the country, which holds the different culture, traditions, languages, songs and different people,” he said.
Parkop said the NCD election was subject to the “highest level of scrutiny”.
He said after five months – nomination, campaign, polling and counting – the result was finally out.
“Despite the challenges, the GE22 results for the city has prevailed which was important to acknowledge,” he said.
Electoral Commissioner Simon Sinai said the plan to run polling at the local level government and ward levels did not work out well in GE22.
“The strategy was trialed in the Moresby North-west by-election in 2019, but mistakes were not corrected resulting in the delays.”