Assembly members criticise EC’s decision

MOROBE tutumang members have criticised the Electoral Commission (EC) for encouraging a “wild west lobby type” system to revert to the election of LLG presidents by ward councillors.
Deputy governor Judas Nalau and the tutumang (assembly) members were irked by EC’s decision and said they would seek legal interpretation.
Nalau and deputy Opposition leader Sam Basil concurred that reverting to the old method of electing presidents by councillors meant encouraging ‘wild west style’ of lobbying for leaders and a stupid decision.
Nalau said current election system to vote for leaders improved greatly over time, allowing people to exercise their freedom of choice to elect councillors, LLG presidents, Open MPs and the governor.
“How on earth was the LLG election system reverted to the former method for councillor select to lobby for presidential seat. This is illogical,” Nalau said.
He said it was costly and risky.
“The system cheated voters’ legitimate mandate and confidence bestowed over a person they trusted to be their leader,” Nalau said.
Nalau agrees to concurrent election (national and LLGs) dates.
Provincial works chairman Joel Alu said the EC’s decision to revert to the former voting system for presidents was undemocratic and not transparent.
“In this case, citizens need to vote for the prime minister and he shouldn’t be elected on the parliament floor by MPs, it’s undemocratic,” Alu said.
“Government politicised and minimised the LLGSIP funding from K500,000 to K100,000 and now uses the EC to revert to the old voting system.”