Locals: Do not delay election

By ELLEN TIAMU
YOUNG people from Kabwum, Morobe, have opposed a suggestion by Morobe Governor Luther Wenge to have the general election postponed for a year.
Wenge said last week that because of the many constitutional issues still to be resolved, the Electoral Commissioner should postpone the elections by a year.
He said that would allow the courts time to deal with all outstanding matters.
But Kabwum youths at Bumayong say the leadership in Morobe “has gone stale”.
The youths said they wanted to see change.
They said the elections must be allowed to go ahead when the writs are issued in April.
A spokesman Nethysh Ayangbiang said for too long the province, especially people in rural areas, had been neglected.
The voices of the people had not been heard by the leaders and those in authority.
Ayangbiang said they were on Wenge’s campaign committees in the past 15 years but saw that nothing had come out of it.
They singled out the ethnic clash in Lae in November, saying Wenge and all other Morobean leaders had remained quiet on the issue while Morobeans died and were injured at the hands of police and Highlanders.
The youths said young men from outside Ahi died standing up for Lae so that it would a better place for women and children as Morobeans.
They also questioned what Wenge had done about a petition that was handed to him after the clash that resulted in three men dead at Bumayong, just outside the city precincts.  
Ayanbiang said Morobeans were ready for change and wanted to see new political leaders lead the province and its people to better times in the next five years.
He said the elections must be allowed to take place this year as planned.