Baing outlines election challenges

By LEONNIE WAYANG-SEVUA
JENNIFER Baing, one of the two women who stood for the Markham seat, says financial constraints, time restrictions and accessibility problems conspired to an unsuccessful election for her.
However, she was up front in congratulating Loujaya Toni and Paul Isikiel (Markham) on their victories.
In sharing her experience as a candidate, Baing said she had limited time for her campaign.
She and her committee had difficulty getting into villages which were accessible only by foot.
She thanked her husband Bao Waiko, parents Susan and Andrew Baing and friends and colleagues throughout Markham Valley for sacrifice and assistance during the election.
“I was supposed to be endorsed by the People’s Indigenous Party but because I was unable to sign papers from the IPP in order to be nominated, I had to run as an independent candidate and that also added to the difficulties I faced as I did not have sufficient financial support.” Baing said.
She said churches were influenced by politics because she had received letters from some of them asking her to fund certain projects because she was a candidate.
“I want to tell the churches who have received money from other candidates that God knows what you have done and he will rain either blessings or curses for that,” she said.
Baing, who hails from the Dampi-Dampi clan in Ragiampun village and is the director for Save PNG, a non-governmental organisation, said she was surprised to find that she had fewer votes than expected in her own village. She claimed there was bribery but she didn’t want to delve into the issue.
“My call for the new government under Prime Minister Peter O’Neill is to make road infrastructure their priority so it is easy for people to move around for business purposes and also for projects in Markham.