Motu-Koitabu gets the green light for LLG elections

Inter-Government Relations Minister Kevin Isifu says only Motu-Koitabu Assembly in the National Capital District will have its local level government elections in 14 wards next month.
He said Cabinet met yesterday and approved his department’s submission to defer LLG election from next month to April 2019, with the exception of Motu-Koitabu.
“Cabinet yesterday approved the submission that only the Motu-Koitabu Assembly will go ahead with their elections on Aug 31, 2018, while elections for the rest of the LLGs throughout the country have been deferred to April 2019,” Isifu said.
“The Motu-Koitabu Assembly is under a separate act of the National Capital District Act so they are treated differently.”
Prime Minister Peter O’Neill had told Parliament on Wednesday that Cabinet considered the submission from Isifu to hold the election in April 2019.
O’Neill had said that the Government had deferred the LLG elections to next year and would use the budgeted K100 million for the exercise this year to settle allowances
owed to councilors around the country.
“The K100 million budgeted to conduct the (2018) LLG elections will be used to sort out all the councilors’ outstanding allowances,” he said. “The councilors are owed over K70 million.”
O’Neill said 6033 councilors would be paid the allowances they were owed.
The LLG elections were supposed to have been held this month but later deferred to next month, and now next April.
“This will be the final deferment,” O’Neill said.