Seven policemen suspended

By GLORIA BAUAI
THE Madang Investigation Taskforce (ITF) has suspended seven police personnel for alleged administrative and electoral functions misconduct, police say.
Madang commander Chief Inspector Mazuc Rubiang said three personnel were suspended for leaving the province without proper authorisation to vote at their home villages, another three for drinking on duty and one for bribery.
Rubiang stressed that General Election 2022 (GE22) was a national operation that needed everyone’s participation, sober and alert.
He said one other officer was bribed by a relative of a suspect who had been jailed for having large amounts of cash in his possession during polling.
“The officer in question had released the suspect after receiving K2,000 so he (police officer) was jailed and allowed release on a K500 bail,” Rubiang said.
Taskforce officer in-charge Chief Inspector Charles Winuan said one of the policemen caught drunk was driving a People’s Labour Party vehicle with a candidate’s election poster on it.
Winuan said all officers suspended would be properly dealt with after the elections.
He added that his team was also responsible for the arrest and processing of a Bogia open candidate who was said to have hijacked ballot boxes in his electorate.
He said the candidate was expected to appear in court tomorrow (Tuesday).
Rubiang confirmed that eight men were also arrested near the Walium station for being in possession of a firearm but later released on police bail and gun confiscated.

Votes for Yali to be disregarded

PRIMARY counting for Madang regional seat has started following clear instructions by the Electoral Commission to disregard any ballot paper with barred candidate James Yali as a preference.
Madang election manager Sponsa Navi said Yali was listed as ineligible to contest due to prior criminal conviction.
“Commissioner Simon Sinai has instructed that any ballot paper with Yali’s name or his box number indicated is automatically informal; this means that the other preference on the same ballot paper – be it first, second or third choice – will also be counted as informal because of Yali as a preference,” he said.
Navi said the candidate had challenged this decision in court, with a ruling set for July 29 which falls on the date of return of writs.
“His scrutineers came to see me and I explained the situation with any ballot papers with his name on as a preference and I also advised them to allow the counting process to go and declaration be done,” he said.
Navi said that with the understanding of the candidates’ scrutineers and supporters, the counting for Madang regional’s 37 candidates should go on.

Money confiscated from counting officials

MORE than K6,000 was confiscated by joint-security personnel during routine body search of counting officials on the first day of counting for the Madang Open seat at Tusbab Primary School on Wednesday, an official says.
Madang police field commander Snr Sgt Frank Makora said the amount totalled was from various counting officials going into the counting venue.
“One had about K2,800, another had K3,000 and two had around K500 and K200 each on them,” he said.
“Our personnel doing the searches confiscated the money and handed it over to the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) to be cleared by the National Investigation Unit (NIU).”
He said the monies had since been declared as personal money and returned to the owners.
“This routine searches are to ensure no extra ballot papers are smuggled into the counting area and no weapons of any sort that may harm anyone,” he said.
“Officials underwent training and know that large amounts of money are not allowed into the counting venue to allow the counting process to be free of bribery and abuse.”
Makora said general security of the venue had been quiet since the first day and he hoped this continued until the end of counting this week.
“The school has two gates so we’ve restricted the front gate for staff and their families only while we man the back gate for the counting activity,” he said.
Meanwhile, Police Commissioner David Manning has congratulated the joint-security forces engaged in GE22 for maintaining order nationwide despite the many challenges.
“I’ll be the first to admit that there has been some critical gaps but the experience of our men and women in the disciplinary force has allowed us to provide some guidance and take initiative to ensuring that the (electoral) process be continuously advanced and completed,” he said.
He said security concept of election operation came in three phases, the first two – awareness and polling – were delivered to satisfaction.
He said with the last gazetted week of the election period remaining, the teams would now pull personnel freed up from polling and reposition to provide quick response to secure counting process.
“My warning to anyone who wants to replicate what happened in Mutzing and Kabwum that we have a very low tolerance to that type of behaviour so anyone wanting to cause disruption by threats or criminal acts to the counting process, must be prepared to face consequences,” he said.
Manning was in Madang briefly over the weekend, after spending weeks in the Highlands since polling started – a commitment made during the launch to be with his men and women on the ground.
“My coming here was just coincidental as we had (police) helicopters coming in to return stranded polling teams to their counting stations,” he said.