By-election commences

POLLING for the Bougainville regional seat by-election began yesterday.
Bougainville President Ishmael Toroama was at Petats Island where he voted.
Toroama was joined by members of his cabinet and senior members of the Bougainville public service for the Bougainville Executive Council (BEC) meeting on the island who also voted.
After voting, Toroama said it was a momentous event for Bougainville in electing its representative in the National Parliament.
“I urge Bougainvilleans to vote for a leader who will work with the Autonomous Bougainville Government and with me as your president,” he said.
“We must not vote for a leader who isolates himself and does not want to cooperate with the ABG which is the legitimate political authority on the ground.”
Toroama said his main concern was effective service delivery to the people and that cooperation with the four national MPs of Bougainville could help to alleviate a lot of development challenges in the region.
“The person that Bougainville elects as our regional member must be the voice of the people of Bougainville in Parliament,” he said.
Toroama said that the representative needs to remember the political independence aspirations of Bougainville.