Losing candidates blame commission

National, Normal
Source:

The National, Wednesday August 08th, 2012

TWO candidates who lost the regional race in Enga have blamed the electoral commission for contributing to what they claimed as ‘gross vote rigging and hijacking of ballot boxes’ throughout the province.
Sandy Talita, who finished second, and Nathan Piari, third, yesterday said the appointment of public servants as polling officials had contributed to the election problems.
The men said they had sought legal opi­nions and were preparing to dispute the win of re-elected governor Peter Ipatas in court.
Both men are in Port Moresby to pursue their court cases.
Talita and Piari said during counting, they had disputed a number of issues but nothing was done.
“We felt that our protests were genuine but they all fell on deaf ears,” Piari said.
Former Enga regional MP Paul Pakem Torato described the 2012 general election as the worst he had come across in his entire political career.
“The use of public servants, public money and collaboration of appointment of election officials were all in favour of one person.
“There was no fairness here.
“We will support aggrieved candidates fight the matter in court.
“The electoral commission will also be hauled in to court to explain itself,” Torato said in the presence of businessmen and another Enga regional candidate Mathew Minape.
Talita alleged that the Enga regional election was:
l    Fixed by the provincial administration,
l    Agents of the Electoral Commission had compromised the integrity of the elections and
l    There was general animosity, especially in foreign ballot papers found in the ballot boxes, vote-rigging and the hijacking of ballot papers during voting.