Pay up, call to poll body

SERVICE providers in Jiwaka are calling on the Electoral Commission to settle its debts before the supplementary council elections.
The service providers, through their spokesman, Councillor Peter Ak, of the Banz local level government council, said yesterday the  commission owed them a substantial amount of money.
Ak said the people provided services to the commission like accommodation, vehicles and security during the council elections last year and were still waiting to be paid.
He said he did not know the exact amount owing to them but it was in the tens of thousands.
“I want to call on the Electoral Commissioner to settle all these outstanding debts because the services providers are already frustrated after waiting for almost a year now,” he said.
“I want to call on the national government to allocate adequate funding to the Electoral Commission to settle outstanding bills and conduct successful elections,” he said.
He said problems would arise when inadequate funding was allocated to a new province like Jiwaka.