NCD to draw numbers – The National

By LULU MAGINDE
DRAWING of candidate numbers for the National Capital District regional seat is expected to take place this morning at the Sir John Guise Stadium.
NCD provincial returning officer Kila Ralai said the same was expected to be done for the other seats – Moresby North-West, Moresby South and Moresby North-West.
A total of 29 hopefuls, nominated for the regional seat, five of whom placed nominations on the final day with the final candidate filing just before 3.53pm.
“Overall the nominations for the last seven days ran smoothly, there were some days when crowd control could have been better maintained but other than that, we’re looking forward for the order of draw to be the same,” Ralai said.
He said of the 29, 11 candidates are affiliated with parties while the other 18 are running independent.
All three females are endorsed by political parties with incumbent parliamentary leaders – Sylvia Pascoe (People’s Party), Lucille Paru (Pangu) and Patrina Dikin (Triumph Heritage Empowerment Party).
Notable crowd favourites are incumbent Governor Powes Parkop running under his Social Democratic Party, former governor Wari Vele under People’s Labour Party, Steven Kilage under United Labour Party, independent candidates Ben Dangima and Fred Yakasa and Pascoe under the People’s Party.
Occupations of contestants range from teachers, farmers, consultants and advisers, lawyers, doctors, businessmen, to a pilot, two experienced police officers and a driver.
Rallies can be done however, campaigning cannot begin until candidates draw which solely depends on the discretion of the returning officer to select a senior official from either the Electoral Commission or the NCD Commission, Ralai said.
Before the draws can be done, the NCD election team will be checking forms submitted during nomination to ensure forms 29, 23 and 30 (if they are endorsed by a political party) with deposit slips and passport photos all attached.

27 nominees vying for North-West

By LULU MARK
AT the 4pm close of nomination yesterday 27 candidates are vying for the Moresby North-West seat of which three are women, according to the returning officer Vincent Manukayasi.
He said the nominations were 11 short of the 2017 election number were there were 38 candidates including four women.
Last Thursday the 11 nominations were: Desmond Yaninen (independent), Isaac Lupari (independent), Joe Tonde (United Labour Party), Dr Thaddeus Kambanei (People’s National Congress), Jackson Kiakari (independent), Anna Bais (People’s Party), Mefu Kerekere (independent), Memafu Kapera (PNG Party), Allan Nanguromo (independent) and Mathew Malingi (independent).
The only nomination on Friday was of popular singer Anslom Nakikus, running as an independent.
The two nominations on Monday were of Fai Tukeo and Larry Patterson Kila (independent).
Ross Oromiva (independent) was the only nomination on Wednesday.
Yesterday the 10 nominations were: Leo Morris Morauta Levo (National Alliance), Theodore Dambe Takpe (independent), David Dotaona (independent), Andy Tepra (independent), John Emmanuel Kian (independent), Freddy Korakali (independent), Walter Yangomina (independent), Segie Otio (PNG Country Party), Janet Benabo and Michael Oki (independent).
Manukayasi said the order of the draw where the candidates would get their box numbers would take place at the Sir John Guise Stadium today starting at 9am.

Candidates not allowed to nominate in other electorates

Follow traffic rules … Deputy Commissioner of Police for Operations Anton Billie says supporters of candidates should abide by traffic rules during the general election period. “Supporters of candidates and the public get so excited during nomination and campaign periods and road accidents have happened in the past.” Pictured is an over-loaded truck during the final day of nominations in Wewak, East Sepik, yesterday.

By HELEN TARAWA
NATIONAL Capital District election manager Kila Ralai says returning officers will not accept nominations for other provinces.
Ralai said this in response to reports of a candidate from the Highlands region who turned up at the Moresby North-East nomination site yesterday to file his nomination for a seat in his province.
Ralai said this was not allowed.
“I only look after NCD and candidates vying for these seats are accepted not others from the other provinces,” he said.
“It’s a different case and we have referred the matter to the head office,” Ralai added.
Moresby North-East returning officer Billy George told The National that a certain candidate had run out of time to travel to his province to file his nomination and had approached his team.
“We understand this is not possible and it is not allowed so we referred the candidate to the PNG Electoral Commission headquarters to get a clarification,” George said.
He said this was the first time that such a case had been brought to their notice.
George explained that only candidates for Moresby North-East seats were accepted.
He said they did not want to turn away anyone but this was a different case that was not within their jurisdiction to address.
“Moresby North-East is a big electorate with a large population and we were expecting more candidates to nominate in this election,” George said.
He said a total of 77 candidates had filed nominations for North-East however, one had withdrawn.
George said out of the 76 candidates, five were women.
He said the candidate names would be drawn today at the NCD Electoral Office in Boroko.