Son of former premier wins elections

 By BENNY GETENG

THE son of a former politician and a former politician have been elected as presidents in their respective local level governments in Northern.

Jeff Taua, the son of former Northern premier Mark Taua, was elected as Tufi LLG president, while former Kokoda LLG president Jackson Iriro defeated his predecessor John Kivo who had won the seat from him in the 2008 LLG elections.

Northern election manager Peter Malaifeope said that Tufi and Kokoda were the first of seven other presidents’ seats to be declared last Saturday.

“For Afore, Oro Bay, Sasia, Popondetta, Higaturu, Taimata and Kira, counting is expected to finish by the end of this week with declarations to be made,” he said.

“Counting is progressing well in the province as anticipated by the electoral commission and we are expecting that by Friday or Saturday, we will be able to declare all of the seats in the province.

“The duly elected presidents will be officially sworn in by the provincial administrator at a later date.

“Since polling had begun up until counting, there has not been any reported major incidences and the elections so far has been peaceful. The counting has been done during the day only to allow the public to witness the whole process in a transparent way.

“The people too have been very interested in the elections, especially on how the eliminations processes are conducted during counting and it is a very good learning process for the people with the new Limited Preferential System being used in the elections.”

Provincial police commander Senior Inspector Jacob Singura said since counting began, no major incidences had been reported and counting was progressing well.