Keep tampered boxes out: RO

A NUMBER of candidates in the Kagua-Erave electorate in Southern Highlands are demanding the Electoral Commission to exclude ballot boxes they allege have been tampered by supporters of three fellow contestants.
Their allegations backed by photographic evidence and witness statements were in a petition addressed to Kagua-Erave returning officer Albert Helepe Weins over the weekend.
When contacted, the returning officer said from Mendi that he had not received the petition but was advised by his assistant returning officer in the Erave LLG that 17 ballot boxes from there had allegedly been tampered with but had been brought to Mendi police station.
The petition listed alleged incidences of three candidates (named) from the Erave, Kagua and Aiya LLGs seizing ballot boxes and getting their supporters to mark the papers and denying whole communities the right to vote.
In one of the electorates, supporters of a certain candidate killed a man and in retaliation, two other men and a woman were killed, the petition by incumbent MP Wesley Raminai stated.
“At Aboba polling station, the presiding officer and his assistant were allegedly threatened with weapons by a candidate and his brothers so they did not sign ballot papers.
Instead ballot papers for both the open and regional seats were taken into the candidate’s hausman and were signed by the candidate’s relatives,” the petition read.
It further stated that the eight ballot boxes in Aiya LLG and nine in Erave LLG which were flown in by helicopter had also been seized by candidates.
“We have threats coming from each of the wards that they will shoot down the choppers.
The Electoral Commission is advised not to send choppers into Kagua-Erave.
“The situation on the ground is so tense,” Raminai said in the petition.
“At the Ronga Apoma polling booth in Sugu Valley, supporters of one candidate forced the presiding officer and his assistant to sign ballot papers.
“Tension flared and the candidate’s supporters killed one man,” Raminai stated in the petition.