Deputy governor adjourns assembly session

Hela Deputy Governor and acting provincial assembly chairman Thomas Potape adjourned Tuesday’s session in Tari to elect an acting governor because there were extra members.
He said the meeting could not proceed as scheduled because certain people who were not supposed to be inside the assembly were there.
A vote was to have taken place to decide whether Koroba-Lake Kopiago MP Philip Undialu or Komo-Magarima MP Francis Potape would be the acting governor.
Thomas said there were supposed to have been only 13 assembly members, including Tari-Pori MP James Marape, Undialu and Francis.
But the number swelled during the session.
“This is because the governorship of Hela is very important,” Potape told The National.
“We also have the LNG benefits sharing which has not been properly discussed yet.
“We have the LNG project in this province. We are a new province which is not a big one, with only three MPs.
“We have many law and order problems with people being killed in all three electorates so the governorship is very important.
“We must elect someone to be the acting governor in a peaceful way with no division.
“I want someone to be properly elected so the people of Hela know who their governor is for the next eight months (until the 2017 general election).
“We have to sit down and sort out all these problems before the July 28 assembly session.”