Gazelle expects to declare winner

By ABIGAIL APINA
GAZELLE open is expected to declare the winning candidate on Wednesday as elimination begins today at the Kairak counting centre.
Returning officer Ekonia Walom said yesterday he was certain to declare the winner if everything went to plan.
He said they were expected to complete their quality check process at 7pm yesterday and they would check “box by box” to ensure they verified everything before elimination started.
The primary count ended at 10pm last Friday night after count 34.
He said there was one more box, containing the postal votes of police officers, that was expected to be counted yesterday to add to the progressive counts.
The box had been locked up the Kokopo police station and was brought to the Gazelle counting centre yesterday morning.
Walom said it was impossible for the team to get the ballot box after much tension in Kokopo between candidates and their scrutineers and the counting officials last week.
“The general environment here at Gazelle is great, people are civilised although they live far from Kokopo and Rabaul,” he said.
Norbert Kubak came out on top of the primary count with 6,504 votes. Second was sitting member Malakai Tabar with 6,431 votes and Sinai Brown third with 4,195 votes.
Walom said only 48% (34,394) of the 70,777 eligible voters in the district voted, with 1,099 informal votes.
For Rabaul open, returning officer Aaron Maramun said elimination started at 1pm, with the winning candidate to be declared soon.