Man thrown out of petition hearing

Security guards at the Waigani National Courthouse threw out a man prior to the Kandep election petition hearing in Port Moresby yesterday.
The man was forcing himself into the court room while the guards were maintaining order for supporters of candidates Don Polye and Alfred Manase to enter the room in an orderly manner.
The guards arrested the man and handed him over to the police.
Meanwhile, the hearing for the Kandep election disputed returns continued with a Papua New Guinea Defence Force officer Major Francis Vitats taking the stand for counsels from both sides to cross examine him.
During cross examination, Major Vitats said that he was part of the security contingent deployed at Kandep in Enga for the 2017 election security operations.
“With some members of the security forces, I went to the polling sites at Kinduli and Kanean on July 8, 2017,” he said.
“We went there but there was a huge ditch along the road so we had to put our own logs that we had brought along in our vehicle over the ditch.
“When we arrived at those sites at about 10.30am, we saw people just hanging around.
“There was no polling taking place as there were no ballot boxes.”
Vitats said he saw a vehicle loaded with men armed with high-powered firearms.
“I then returned to Kandep station to seek reinforcement from other members of the security forces,” he said.
Ousted Kandep MP Polye is challenging Minister of Civil Aviation Manase’s win on grounds of bribery, intimidation, hijacking of ballot boxes , failure of the Electoral Commission to provide security and other allegations.