Police catch MP giving cash

By JAMES APA GUMUNO
POLICE have arrested North Waghi MP Benjamin Mul for allegedly distributing money in the vicinity of a polling station at Waghi Bridge, Jiwaka province.
Provincial police commander Supt Simon Nigi said security personnel saw Mul allegedly giving cash to voters at Waghi Bridge at around midday and arrested him.
Nigi said Mul was taken to the Minj police station for questioning and then to Mt Hagen to be charged.
This is the first time in the highlands region that a sitting MP was arrested for distributing cash to voters since polling began.
In a separate incident during the polling in Jiwaka, Nigi said a candidate from the Anglimp-South Waghi electorate reportedly hijacked a ballot box at Kindeng.
He could not say whether the box had been recovered.
He said in another incident, a candidate and his supporters moved polling from a gazetted polling area at Kendu Two to Tupa village.
Nigi said Tupa was not a gazetted polling area but a candidate and his supporters moved it by force.
He said polling in North and South Waghi electorates were completed yesterday.
He said polling started very late in Jimi yesterday and would continue today.
Nigi said because of the lack of road infrastructure, helicopters continued to transport polling officials and security officers to polling stations in the
district.