Flights to Mt Hagen cancelled

FLIGHTS to Mt Hagen were cancelled yesterday after candidates contesting the Mt Hagen open seat and their supporters went to the airport and told staff at the National Airport Corporation and airline companies to shut their operations.
The candidates and the supporters managed to take immediate action after their petition to change the returning officer and assistant returning officer for Mt Hagen electorate was not addressed by  Electoral Commissioner Patilias Gamato, pictured.
Candidates Luke Mathew and James Yoka said they had given Gamato seven days to act on their petition.
The petition lapsed on Tuesday.
Yoka said they had come up with two options and that was to either remove the returning officer and the assistant officer or to swap them with other electorates.
He said they were two simple actions that should have been taken but Gamato did nothing “to address our concern”.
Mathew said their petition should have been heard. “We have no other intention to close the airport but this is to show our frustration because the electoral commissioner was ignoring our petition,” he said.
“We are fighting for our rights and the Electoral Commission has to know that.”
Gamato said he did not want to comment.
Eastern End assistant police commissioner for Highlands Nema Mondia said the threat was still there.
Mondia said there was no flight into Kagamuga yesterday except for one in the morning.
He said the candidates had met on Friday with provincial police commander Chief Supt Martin Lakari.
Mondia said after their discussions with Lakari, some candidates did not turn up yesterday morning.
He said what the candidates did was a breach of the Civil Aviation Act.
“The staff at the airport, when they heard of the threat, did not turn up at work yesterday,” Mondia said.
“Because the staff did not turn up, the flights were cancelled.”
He said he met with a couple of his senior officers and came up with options to talk to one of the candidates and he assured them that the airport would be opened from today.
Mondia said police advised the candidate to assure the management at Air Niugini, National Airport Cooperation (NAC) and other airline companies that there would be no interference.
Mondia said flights would resume today.
Air Niugini had suspended its afternoon flight PX886 to Mt Hagen, saying that it was due to unrest.
However, Lakari said there was no unrest at the airport or the surrounding areas.
“Please do not take everything you read or see in the social media as true, most of them are just rumours.”