Vote parties: Ralai

By LULU MAGINDE
WITH the large number of political parties and candidates for this year’s general election, people need to make choices based on party policies, National Capital District election manager Kila Ralai says.
He said this in reference to the opening day of nominations on Thursday (May 19) and in the days since heading to the close of nominations tomorrow.
“Given the number of registered political parties in the country, people should be voting candidates on their policies, whether independent or with a party and not for their standing or how much wealth they can bring,” he said.
“We still expect to see some more candidates over the next two days (today and tomorrow) until polls close but we must change our way of voting for leaders.”
There are now 20 candidates vying for the governor’s seat in the National Capital District, more than the number that ran in 2017, while the Moresby North-East seat had the most so far with 48 nominations. As of yesterday, Moresby North East saw an additional candidate nominate; two for Moresby North-West seat bringing that total to 16 while Moresby South’s nominations remained at five.
Moresby South returning officer Tau Toea said he expected this number to be the final tally at the deadline for nominations tomorrow.
Meanwhile, there are three women running for the National Capital District regional seat; two for Moresby North-West; four for Moresby North-East; and, one for Moresby South bringing the total tally to 10 women who are running for office in the nation’s capital.
The nominations will close tomorrow.