Namah: I will form govt

Main Stories, National
Source:

The National, Wednesday 25th July, 2012

By STARZA PAUL
PNG Party leader Belden Namah yesterday headed for his party camp in East New Britain confident he will lead the formation of the new government after writs are returned on Friday.
Namah, the Vanimo-Green River MP, was deputy to Peter O’Neill in the recent government.
He told a crowd after he was declared winner in his electorate on Sunday in Vanimo town that he would be the next prime minister of the country, and the first for West Sepik province.
“I will become the first prime minister from this province and I also broke the record for Vanimo-Green when I became the first to win the seat for two consecutive terms,” he said.
Namah, whose camp in Kokopo will last for two weeks, described himself as the “best horse in the field”.
He is confident of beating O’Neill in the race for the top post in the “lobbying and horse trading”.
“The staggering figure of new members being declared for PNC does not worry me much because I know I will have more MPs joining me after counting that is still going in PNG,” he said.
“I’m the favourite horse on the field. I will beat everybody for the top post because I will come from the back and beat everyone and that includes the caretaker prime minister.”
He said O’Neill and the Electoral Commission failed badly when they declared the caretaker PM had won the Ialibu-Pangia seat when others were still polling and counting in other seats in the country.
“I can tell the nation that this was a grave mistake that the Electoral Commission made because in a sense, it was  unfair to every candidate and political party around PNG,” he said.
O’Neill said at a press conference that Namah’s lobbying for the top post did not worry him because his party had the numbers to form the next government.
In Kokopo, Namah’s contingent, Komo-MaRgarima MP Francis Mulunga Potape and Talasea MP Francis Marus, will stay at the Rapopo Plantation Resort at Takubar and hold their meetings at the Gazelle International Hotel.