O’Neill leads after count 13 with 5128 votes

PRIME Minister Peter O’Neill was last night leading on 5128 votes after count 13 for the Ialibu-Pangia electorate – ahead of his closest rival Stanley Liria with 1006 votes.
Ialibu-Pangia assistant returning officer Ronald Rambu said some election officials had wanted their allowances to be paid up front but agreed to proceed with the counting while their payment was being sorted out.
A total of 15 boxes had been counted by yesterday – out of the 115 boxes for the district.
O’Neill won the seat in 2012 by a big margin over seven other candidates. He is facing nine candidates this year.
He said on Sunday night he expected counting to proceed smoothly.
One of the districts where officials wanted to be paid first before counting was the Imbonggu district.