ENB declares 90 wards unopposed

THE polling schedule for the local level government (LLG) elections in East New Britain (ENB) has seen 90 wards declared unopposed or failed.
ENB election manager and returning officer Joap Voivoi said after the close of nominations, 90 wards were declared unopposed while seven were declared failed as there were no nominations.
Voivoi said amoung the failed wards are four from the Lassul Baining LLG in Gazelle and three from West Pomio Mamusi LLG in Pomio.
He said the supplementary writs would be issued later for those failed wards.
“This means polling and counting would not be done in those 97 wards,” Voivoi said.
From the initial figure of 135 polling teams, 18 teams had been removed and 127 teams were now engaged to conduct polling for the 285 wards.
“Polling starts on Saturday and concludes by next Thursday with the Return of Writs on July 26.”
Police would also be engaged to provide security during the polling and counting periods.
Voivoi said polling and counting for the more remote wards would be done on the same day, while counting for the urban centres would have central counting venues at the LLG chambers and was expected to be done two days after polling.
He said if there was a need for more time to complete the election process, then the province would request the PNG Electoral Commission to extend the return of writs for another week.