Official: Voting awareness crucial

By HELEN TARAWA
NATIONAL Capital District (NCD) assistant election manager Roselyne Tabogani says that there will be a one-day polling in the National Capital District on July 6.
“Once we confirm the polling venues, the schedule will be published,” she said on Friday.
“We want the candidates to work with us and we are emphasising this because we have been accused of all kinds of things in the past.
“We want this election period to be more transparent.”
Tabogani said there would be a scrutineers’ briefing and also polling and counting briefings for electoral officials.
She also urged candidates in NCD to educate their supporters on the importance of limited preferential voting (LPV) during the campaign period.
She said the nomination period had ended on Friday and the next step was for the candidates to carry out awareness in the respective electorates.
Tabogani said candidates needed to use the opportunity of the campaign period to inform and educate their people.
“We are encouraging candidates to make use of the awareness materials, especially posters, from the PNG Electoral Commission to teach their voters,” she said.
“It’s about the importance of voting the correct way and that awareness must be carried out by the candidates to help the process.
“I’m mostly encouraging candidates to educate their supporters on voting.
“One person has one ballot paper with three choices so if they work together they will make their choices among themselves.
“It’s good to teach them because if they don’t vote properly and on the ballot paper then it would be informal and that’s a waste of time.
“The candidates spend money for campaigning and even the Government spends money for the elections so if the candidates can teach their supporters it will go a long way in helping the process.”

21 vying for regional seat

A TOTAL of 21 candidates, including three women, have nominated to contest the Central regional seat.
Central returning officer Peter Malaifeope said candidates were given their box numbers at Bautama on Friday.
“As stated under the organic law, the order of drawing the box numbers should be conducted after the nomination,” he said.
Malaifeope said the three female candidates were Rufina Peter, Philomena Kassman and Vavine Dai.
“Among the women candidates, Dai is a successful businesswoman and the owner of Kone Bada Resort in Boera,” he said.
He wished all candidates the best.
He called for candidates and supporters to respect the rule of law and the electoral process.
“People should take ownership of this election and assist officers during polling and counting,” he said.
He said female voters needed to be respected and allowed to cast their votes without any influence.

Temu drives party’s plans at launching

By AILEEN KWARAGU
OUR Development Party (ODP) should be in the conversation among the people of Central and the country as a whole, party founder and Abau MP Sir Puka Temu says.
He said the party was formed in 2010 aimed to uniting the Papuan region and fighting for what they deserved on the floor of parliament.
He said this during the launch of his campaign for re-election to the Rigo open seat in Kupiano last week in front of more than 8,000 people.
Sir Puka said as the champion of the country’s public policy and implementation called Vision 2050, he aimed to promote ODP policies.
“People should understand that a party forms the Government and ODP aims to win seats in the 2022 general election,” he said.
Sir Puka said they endorsed 10 candidates, including the Central regional seat and the Rigo Open.
He said their key policies concentrated on faith, family, economic growth and leadership would enable them to fight for what the people deserved in parliament if they were elected to the 11th parliament.
Sir Puka called on his people in Abau and Central to support ODP by voting their candidates and move away from the old political practices.
“Building strong political parties is part of nation building and the formation of ODP should enable those aspiring politicians to build the party into a major one,” he said.
Sir Puka, who is the longest serving MP in Southern, said parties like the current reign of Pangu had served the country without achieving the dreams the forefathers.

NCD election officials ready for polling, counting

By JAMIE HARO
NOMINATIONS for all seats in the National Capital District (NCD) have gone smoothly with no disruptions, an official says.
NCD election manager Kila Ralai said he was happy with the final process of nominations on Friday which was the order of draws.
“We all gathered at the Sir John Guise Stadium to have all the order of draws here,” he said.
Ralai said they started with the NCD regional seat, followed by Moresby South, Moresby North-West and Moresby North East.
“We are ready to submit all the nominations forms together with candidate information, party affiliation documents to the Electoral Commission and concentrate on our preparations for polling and counting,” he said.
The four seats in Port Moresby recorded a total 141 candidates, 30 for NCD regional, 27 for North-West, 76 for North-East and eight for South.
Ralai confirmed that 11 female candidates were going to contest the four seats. “We got three female candidates for NCD regional seat, four in Moresby North-East, three in Moresby North-West and one in Moresby South,” he said.
“There has been an increase, especially for North East and the NCD seats where figures have increased while North West and South have dropped compared to the 2017 general elections.”
Ralai said campaign has started since the order of draws were completed on Friday.
Box numbers for NCD regional seat and the other three electorates were drawn on Friday.
“We still haven’t confirmed where the polling booths will be set up but hopefully by next month, the assistant returning officer’s (AROs) will be appointed,” he said.
“My returning officers will confirm and let me know, they will also confirm the polling sites and then it will be gazetted for public consumption and announced next month by the Electoral Commission.
“Now the candidates are free to begin their campaigns.”