Marape happy with progress

PANGU Pati leader James Marape is happy with the way party MPs are retaining their seats, saying it reflected the good work they had done in their electorates.
He was the first to be declared the winner of his Tari-Pori seat, followed by his deputy and Lae MP John Rosso, then Margarima MP Manasseh Makiba, followed yesterday by Hela Governor Philip Undialu.
“Rosso retained his seat with 26,864 votes. This morning (yesterday), the sitting MP for Margarima Manasseh Makiba retained his seat with 20,753 votes,” Marape said.
Undialu polled 118,113 votes to be declared the winner by the Provincial Election Manager John Tipa.
Prime Minister Marape, in the Pangu camp in Wewak, said he was not surprised to see sitting MPs retaining their seats.
“(It) shows the good work they have done under the Pangu-led government,” he said.
“We also have more of our candidates leading in seats across the country and we expect to do well as counting progresses.
“We have also campaigned hard and the combination of good candidates and good campaigns delivered good results.”
Marape said if Pangu picked up more seats, they would invite their coalition partners and like-minded independent candidates to join their camp in Wewak.

WHP polling progressing peacefully: Chief

POLLING in Western Highlands progressed peacefully yesterday even though there was a lack of security personnel in the area, says chief Michael Pundia.
“We have witnessed one of the best elections in the province, more peaceful than other highlands provinces.
“People voted without any disturbance,” Pundia said.
Provincial police commander Superintendent John Sagom could not be reached for comment yesterday.
There were also attempts made to get comments from provincial election manager Philip Telape.
Pundia thanked the candidates for managing to control the situation.
“It’s a pleasure as landowner of Mt Hagen city to see that everything went peacefully,” he said.
“I commend the candidates for ensuring that peace and order were maintained.
“Western Highlands has been facing issues before the polling, but we have managed it.
“Some places may have minor hiccups like boycotts or complaints but that is something to raise with the election offices.
“I’m happy and thankful that the people behaved well.”
Mother-of-two Maria Aki from Mt Hagen was happy to see polling progressing peacefully.
She however said some people in rural areas were not able to vote because candidates’ supporters had tried to mark their ballot papers.
“In Hagen rural, some people did not want to vote because their rights were abused by candidates and supporters. Apart from that I would like to say that polling for Mt Hagen city was peaceful,” she said.

Kapavore retains seat by 11,949 votes

By ROSELYN ELLISON
POMIO MP Elias Kapavore polled 11,949 votes to retain the seat he first won in a by-election in May 2015, becoming the first MP in East New Britain to be declared a winner yesterday.
The People’s National Congress party member was declared the winner by returning officer John Liskia at around 2.20pm.
The absolute majority was 11,678.
Congratulating Kapavore for retaining the seat he also won in 2017, Liskia said for the first time, they had a good understanding with all the candidates who worked together to make the exercise peaceful and calm.
Liskia thanked members of the joint task force for providing security and ensuring that the election was conducted peacefully with no major incident reported.
He said it was the decision of the people of Pomio to re-elect Kapavore to Parliament. Kapavore thanked the people of Pomio for re-electing him, and invited the eight candidates who contested the seat to join him in developing the district.