‘Kabwum counting sabotaged’

By JIMMY KALEBE
KABWUM returning officer Keteng Ondop believes last Sunday’s burning of some ballot boxes was a deliberate attempt to sabotage the election in the district because the results were not favouring a certain candidate.
As a result, counting was ceased and Ondop said the Electoral Commission would now decide what to do.
He said before the incident caused by some supporters, counting was going on smoothly and without disruption until it reached a point where incumbent MP Patrick Basa was picking up votes and leading.
“We were into count four when the incident happened, the election officials did not know what was actually happening outside the counting venue,” he said.
Ondop said all the ballot boxes, (29 for the district and 29 for the regional seat) were at the counting venue when counting started.
“When we were in count four, the incident started,”he said.
“But prior to that, we never received any complaints from other candidates and their supporters.”
Ondop said during confrontation with the supporters of the candidates, the supporters stormed the counting venue and the place where the ballot boxes were kept.
“They got whatever that they were after and set them on fire – including two vehicles, the electoral office and the counting venue and a district-funded excavator machine,”he said.
“Other properties like stores were looted.
“During that time, we felt that our lives were in danger and we should take cover.
“The Electoral Commissions office in Lae heard of the incident and organised evacuation for us to Lae.”
Ondop said the people who instigated the incident, later claimed that the Kabwum election was a failed one, but he said from his understanding, the Kabwum election was not a failed election.
“It was forced upon by disgruntled supporters,”he said.
“We successfully conducted the polling and the counting was progressing well when the incident happened.”
Ondop said the incident may have taken place after those involved in creating it felt that the outcome of the four counts were not in their favour.

Concerns raised over missing names

GULF candidates have expressed grave concerns over voters missing out in casting their votes during polling with electoral officials in Kerema on Thursday.
They said, in a petition, that most voters in Mupa village in Central Kerema’s local level government had missed out as there were no polling stations set up during scheduled polling dates, while in other villages, names were missing or not registered.
Gulf election manager Poevare Tore said: “We printed the 2017 common roll and distributed them to assistant returning officers for each LLG which were then distributed to the polling officials on the ground.”
Tore said however, for that one particular ward mentioned in the petition, it missed out due to no records of a common roll.
“There were confusions between two wards, one in Tauri-Lakekamu and one in Central Kerema LLGs, having same names for wards but village names were different, the polling team only attended to the village in Tauri-Lakekamu LLG,” he said.
Tore said he cross-checked with the enrollment team and the results indicated that there were no records of common roll for that particular village/ward in the Central-Kerema LLG which resulted in no polling.
The provincial returning officer (PRO) also explained that regardless of which common roll was used, the results were still the same in other parts of the province with names of voters missing.
The PRO also clarified speculations over a photograph circulating on social media showing alleged quality checks of ballot papers by officials from an LLG in Kerema Open.
“The polling teams were checking the unused ballot papers to confirm and update their journals when one of the officials allegedly captured a picture during that time and uploaded it with misleading information on social media,” he said.
He said the rumours were false as all ballot boxes containing used ballot papers had been tightly sealed and locked away at the Kerema police station, awaiting final boxes to arrive in order for counting to start.

All quiet, no violence in border provinces

THE border command has reported no election-related incidents so far, a senior officer says.
Deputy divisional commander for border command, Chief Superintendent Sibron Papoto said the border command covered East Sepik, West Sepik and Western and these provinces had completed polling and were now into counting.
Papoto said East Sepik had gone into counting with declaration of Richard Maru (People’s First Party) for Yangoru-Saussia and Gabriel Kapris (People’s National Congress Party) for Maprik.
Four other districts Wewak, Angoram, Wosera-Gawi and Ambunti-Dreikikier are still counting at their respective districts except Ambunti-Dreikikier which is being counted in Maprik.
Counting for the regional seat is being done at Moem Barracks in Wewak.
“So far, we have not received any election related crime reports,” Papoto said and added that they expected this to be the same for the counting as well within the command.
East Sepik police commander (PPC) Superintendent Albert Beli confirmed that there were no major incidents except overloading of vehicles and police had warned and charged those responsible.
Beli commended the people of East Sepik for a peaceful and incident free election so far.
He added that East Sepik was most likely to wind down counting this week.
Meanwhile, Papoto said West Sepik had also been quiet with no problems encountered.
He said the only district that had difficulty was Telefomin given the remoteness and isolation of the district as most areas were only accessible by air.
“All the other districts have commenced counting and we hope to maintain the peaceful conduct to the end,” he said.
Papoto said Western had also maintained peace and order.
The only major issue for Western was the bad weather which had posed problems for the extraction of ballot boxes.
Papoto said the people had been patient and allowed the electoral process to take place.

PNGDF team leaves New Ireland

THE Papua New Guinea Defence Force (PNGDF) contingent to New Ireland for General Election 2022 security operation left the province on Thursday.
Provincial police commander (PPC) Chief Insp Felix Nebanat said the PNGDF team had spent a month in the province and had supported the police in the election preparation, polling and counting and left after the declaration of the regional and Kavieng seats.
“I thank the PNGDF and the Government for sending the troops over in this ‘first of its kind’’operation for New Ireland,” he said.
“What an experience!
“You have done well.
“I am humbled and it was an honour to have you all under my command.
“You have displayed the highest level of discipline and integrity both on and off duty.
“I hope you can come back again to New Ireland sometime.”
Nebanat said the members of the disciplinary force were brothers serving god, queen and country under oath and would continue to work together whenever they were required to.
He said the provincial police command had planned a demobalisation of “Ops High Speed” when the election period ended.
He also thanked the policemen and women for their efforts in ensuring that security was provided during the election period.

Children forced to vote, says officer

AN allegation of children being forced to vote has emerged in Morobe’s Nabak local level government area of Nawaeb, an official.
Those forced to cast their votes were grades six and seven students.
According to presiding officer in wards eight and 10, Billy Namuesh, the students were forced after eligible voters were not present.
“They were forced by their elders to go and cast their votes after the names of the eligible voters were called and they were not there,”he claimed.
Namuesh said a good number of voters there were clearly underage and turned away at the polling booth after election officials were notified.
However, when these group of students were disallowed, they co-operated well and did not vote.
Namuesh said there had to be special arrangements in place in future to allow efficiency during polling for people living with disability (PLWD).
The Electoral Commission and the Government should ensure in future that these group of people are given the best opportunity to cast their votes wherever they are, he said.
From where the polling was conducted in his area, a good number of PLWD missed out on casting their votes, he said.
“They have the right to cast their votes as the citizens of this country. We have to make it comfortable and accessible for them to exercise their constitutional rights,” he said.
Namuesh, said the Government and EC should pass laws that would allow polling officials to take ballot papers to where they were so that they could vote in future.