Party endorses 33 candidates
By HELEN TARAWA
The People’s Progress Party has endorsed 33 candidates, including a woman, for the General Election 2022 (GE22).
Party president Sumasy Singin confirmed that of the 33 candidates, only two are sitting MPs, Parliamentary party leader Sir Julius Chan who is New Ireland Governor and Kainantu MP and Mining Minister Johnson Tuke.
Dr Joy Travertz, PPP’s only female candidate, is contesting the South Fly Open seat.
She is from Western but stood for the Ijivitari Open seat in Northern in 2017 and polled eighth place.
“I wanted to continue politics and since my people in South Fly asked me, I decided to take on the challenge.”
Travertz, the daughter of the former departmental head, Colin Traverts, said her father also contested the regional seat in Western.
She joined the PPP in this election because Sir Julius was one of the founding fathers of the nation and she believed in him.
Former senior public servant, Singin is contesting the Nawaeb Open seat while party secretary Moses Kar is standing for the Mul-Baiyer Open seat and lawyer Paul Mawa for Tambul-Nebilyer seat.
Sir Julius’ son, Byron who was former Namatanai MP for three terms, is contesting again while John Knox is up against incumbent MP and Treasurer Ian Ling-Stuckey in the Kavieng Open seat.
Among the 33 candidates, 11 are contesting seats in the Highlands, 10 for Mamose, six in Southern and another six in New Guinea Islands.
PPP was founded on Nov 11, 1969 by Sir Julius and former MP and businessman Warren Dutton, forming a caucus of 11 members of the House of Assembly of PNG.
Tertiary fees to be paid this week: Bird
East Sepik Governor Allan Bird says the first subsidy fee from the province will be paid this week after being finally cleared by the Ombudsman Commission.
Provincial education chairman Jackson Kapmawal said the cheques were cleared by the commission after a delay of six weeks.
Bird, who visited Yangoru-Saussia on his campaign trail on Monday, said he had copped criticism over the tertiary fee subsidy programme.
He said: “It (tertiary fee subsidy) is a provincial programme and therefore our education team is responsible for the roll out.
“That team is headed by education adviser (Raymond Bakavi) and Kapmawal is the chairman.
“I apologise for the delays but I understand that I will get blamed for everything that goes wrong in our province.
“I wish to thank the education team for their tireless efforts.
“A total of K6 million was budgeted for this purpose and every tertiary student (higher education) approved institution in the province qualifies for it.
“Each student will receive a K3,000 plus tuition fee subsidy.
“I want to remind parents and students that the subsidy comes from taxes on our hardworking cocoa, vanilla, coffee and coconut farmers.
“This is not an entitlement, it’s a privilege.
“I encourage parents who are not working to use your land and grow something so that the East Sepik government can continue to collect taxes in order to provide this support to other students from the province in the future.”
NIP wants record books used
NEW IRELAND is pushing for village record books to be used as supplementary electoral roll, an official says.
Provincial election steering committee chairman and administrator Lamiller Pawut said concerns were raised after many eligible voters could not find their names in the preliminary electoral roll displayed in the wards.
“The VRB is a legal document under section 106 of the Organic Law where it states a province must have its own database and updated records that can be used to update the common roll and electoral roll, and used in any election,” he said.
Pawut said this after a concerned local raised the issue of not having her name registered in the common roll during an election rally for the People’s Progress Party.
He said if New Ireland was to see a fair and transparent election, the province’s independent data collection system or VRB should be used.
“An agreement was signed with the department of provincial government and local level government affairs three years ago to begin the data collection process,” he said.
“The National Executive Council also approved the use of the village record books of which a copy had been submitted to the Electoral Commission.”
According to current statistics from the record books, the total population in New Ireland was 170,767.
Candidate looks at uniting elites to develop province
By ZACHERY PER
CHIMBU provincial candidate Eric Sinebare (Independent) says the best brains need to be united to help develop Chimbu.
“For Chimbu to advance, the elites must be united in their contributions to effectively build a vibrant socio-economic province,” he said.
Sinebare, an environmentalist and human rights advocate, said: “I will involve all the highly educated and experienced elites and professionals from the province working around the world, including Papua New Guinea (PNG), and Chimbu to help me provide best advice, technical inputs and direction to develop the province, if I am elected,” he added.
Sinebare is in a crowded field of 75 candidates vying for the governor’s post.
“If elected, I will take the same approach and look into areas of empowering youths to become productive citizens through transfer of life-skills in technical education,” he said.
“Successive politicians and Governments have turned a blind eye on youth empowerment.
“We cannot continue to watch our youths go nowhere into the future.”
He said leaders should always get the basics right, do small things right and the bigger dreams will fall in line as bigger dreams cannot be achieved if the foundation was unstable.
Sinebare said as an Independent, his logistical support came from community groups he worked with in the province for the past 56 years.