Candidate refutes Trawen’s claims

 By FREDDY MOU

THE Banz local level government in Jiwaka is still without a president after the Electoral Commissioner Andrew Trawen declared a failed election there and called for a supplementary election to be conducted.

Past president and a leading candidate to take over the seat again, Peter Angelye, disagreed with Trawen’s decision, saying the election was conducted transparently, and without any disturbances with only two council wards having their ballot boxes destroyed.

Trawen’s call was backed by another presidential candidate James Tumun, who wanted the supplementary election, and claimed that the declaration letter had Trawen’s forged signature.

However, Angelye condemned the claims, saying there was no evidence the letter had been forged.

“Their (Trawen and Tumun) comments implied I wrote the letter to Jiwaka governor and copied Trawen’s signature and pasted it on the letter declaring myself as the president-elect is very damaging to my character and reputation as a leader, and I welcome the investigation instigated by the commissioner,” Angelye said.

“How did Trawen arrive at the decision to fail the election? There is no report by the provincial election steering committee, security personnel and the assistant returning officer to fail the election.”

Trawen had directed an investigation into the origin of a letter bearing his signature last week that had declared Angelye as the Banz LLG president that he claimed was not from him or his office.

He was quoted in The National on Oct 15 saying: “It is evident that the origin of the letter is outside of the electoral commission and that my signature is forged, scanned, copied and pasted on the letter.” 

There are 23 council wards in the Banz LLG and only two – Kimil ward 2 and Bolimba ward 1 – were not declared  because the ballot boxes were destroyed during polling.