RO decries disruptions to counting

Main Stories

By LULU MARK
COUNTING for the Moresby North-West (MNW) seat was suspended on Monday night after officials were threatened with a court order, returning officer Vincent Manukayasi says.
He said with only three boxes remaining to complete the primary count, the team inside the Public Institute of Leadership and Governance (Pilag) hall received word that the candidates and their supporters were outside the gate to deliver a court order.
“I suspended counting after six of nine boxes were completed and we had three remaining to complete ward seven,” he said
Manukayasi said there are four boxes in dispute – three from ward one and one from ward 10.
“I was informed of a court order to stop counting at about 9pm last night (Monday), so I suspended the counting but didn’t allow the order to be served because it was late,” he said.
The RO said his team waited all morning yesterday but the court order was not served.
He was then advised by the Public Solicitor that there was no such court order.
“We should have completed those three boxes and moved on to quality check today (Tuesday),” he said.
He said counting resumed yesterday afternoon.
Manukayasi said he was concerned that continuous disruptions were preventing the counting and declarations from being made.
“The candidates and their supporters have been using every means possible to delay the counting, it seems.
“We have been suspending and restarting counting every second day since the beginning of the counting due to various concerns raised by the candidates ,”he said.


NCD regional count suffers more delays

NCD regional counting officials being checked at the Rita Flynn netball courts yesterday. – Nationalpic by NICKY BERNARD

By LULU MAGINDE
COUNTING for the National Capital District’s (NCD) Regional seat has suffered from further delays after the arrest of two counting officials, with concerns now growing over transparency of the process.
Assistant Commissioner of Police for NCD and Central, Anthony Wagambie Jr, who was at the Rita Flynn Complex yesterday to accompany Electoral Commissioner Simon Sinai to the venue, confirmed that counting would resume since the election manager Kila Ralai was present to brief them.
However, by 2.20pm, The National observed that counting still had not resumed as announced and Ralai, when contacted said he was still in the process of settling some matters.
Scrutineers of certain regional candidates said that over the weekend, their candidates had presented a petition to the NCD Metropolitan Superintendent Gideon Ikumu, raising a number of concerns about how counting had been conducted so far.
The petition stated, upon an approved re-count of all the boxes, officials and scrutineers had found 1,109 ballot papers from three boxes in Wanigela did not have corresponding serial numbers for the books allocated to that area which caused the suspension of counting even further.
Ikumu confirmed with The National that he had received a copy of the petition that was originally presented to Ralai and his assistant but did not disclose its contents.
The National was told by an Electoral Commission official, that Sinai visited Rita Flynn after lunch yesterday and advised Ralai and other officials present to ensure that counting continued so that the writ could be returned by Friday (Aug 5).


Court reserves ruling on North-West count

By CLARISSA MOI
THE National Court has reserved a ruling on an application filed by Moresby North-West candidate Isaac Lupari and other candidates in the electorate seeking to engage the functions of the Electoral Commission (EC).
Lupari through his lawyer Gloria Salika moved an urgent application at Waigani yesterday before Judge Joseph Yagi seeking the enforcement of the functions of EC officials.
Lupari and fellow candidates Dr Thaddeus Kambanei, Anna Bais, Jackson Kiakari, Desmond Yaninen, Allan Nanguromo, Togaro Asiba and Walter Yangomina claimed that there were allegations around polling such as double voting and tampering, among others.
Lupari said complaints had been raised during counting.
He said despite this, the EC had failed to respond at that time.
Moresby North-West assistant returning officer Tamasi Toua, returning officer Vincent Manukayasi, National Capital District election manager Kila Ralai, Sinai, EC and State were named as defendants in the proceeding.
On July 20, a decision was issued to Toua, Manukayasi and Sinai to refuse to exclude from scrutiny marked ballot papers comprising votes from ward one at the polling places located at Hanuabada, Elevala, Mirigini and Gabi.
This is because those ballot boxes were allegedly tampered with and the integrity of the ballot papers contained in them were compromised.
The plaintiffs also sought relief that the extension of dates for the return of writs was in breach of the Organic Law.
The plaintiffs sought an order that the granting of leave would stay the counting of ballot papers for Moresby North-West pending a hearing and determination of the substantive matter.
Representing the defendants, Russell Uware, from the Solicitor General’s office, said leave should not be granted because it was a preliminary issue and this proceeding filed by way of a judicial review was an abuse of process.


North-East quality checks begin

By HELEN TARAWA
A RELIEVED Moresby North-East returning officer Billy George says primary counting has been completed with quality checks underway.
George told The National that it had been almost four weeks of the electoral process from nomination to polling and counting and the electorate was finally nearing the end of the process.
He said a total of 194 boxes out of 201 for MNE were counted.
George explained that the seven boxes were for the areas that did not vote including five for ATS settlement, one for 6-Mile and another for Manu auto port.
“We are now going into quality checks and eliminations will be tomorrow (Wednesday) and the sooner the better for the declaration to be on Thursday morning,” he said.
“We want to get it over and done with so everybody can continue with their lives and normalcy returns.”