More than 600 to contest NIP seats

 By ABIGAIL APINA 

A TOTAL of 605 candidates have been nominated for both seats in New Ireland for the local level government elections.

Provincial election manager Alwyn Jimmy said this was the confirmed number of candidates  but he expected the number to increase as remote local level governments in the province were yet to confirm the number of their nominated candidates.

He said from the 605 candidates, 72 candidates were contesting for the LLG president’s seat while 533 were contesting ward councillors’ seats. 

From the 605 nominated candidates, 24 are female.

These candidates are running for 10 LLG presidents seats and 138 ward councillors in the province.

Jimmy said Kavieng district had  38 presidential candidates and 228 ward councillor candidates.

Murat LLG has four candidates running for the president’s seat and 15 for the ward councillor.

Lavangai LLG attracted seven candidates for the president’s seat and 104 for the ward councillor.

Kavieng urban attracted 23 president candidates, three of whom were females and 46 ward councillor candidates, including six are females.

Tikana LLG in the Kavieng district has four candidates running for the president’s seat and 63 ward councillor candidates. Five of these are females.

In the Namatanai electorate,  the Namatanai, Konagil and Tanir LLGs were yet to confirm the final number of their candidates.

Jimmy said so far only one candidate each had been confirmed for both the president’s seat and the ward councillor for Namatanai.

He said two ward councillor candidates had been confirmed for Tanir LLG.

For Matalai LLG, seven candidates are contesting for the president’s seat and 44 ward councillor candidates have been nominated. Central New Ireland has confirmed 18 candidates for the president’s seat and 167 ward councillor candidates.

Nimamar LLG has attracted seven candidates for the president’s seat and 91 for council wards.