Wenge loses seat

By EDDIE MOSES
THREE-term Morobe governor, Luther Akisawa Wenge, self-styled fullback and defender of the constitution lost his seat last Friday to fellow lawyer, Kasiga Kelly Naru.
Naru’s declaration at 2.15pm as the new governor-elect also signalled the end of a successful election 2012 in Morobe.
Wenge, the leader of the People First Party, a colourful and witty politician, renowned for his puns during even the most intense parliamentary debates succumbed after the 17th elimination with 83,967 votes.
His successor Kelly Naru passed the 50% plus one absolute majority threshold of 92,179 votes with a total progressive tally of 100,389 votes to become the new Morobe regional MP.
Naru acknowledged Wenge and his contributions to Morobe and the nation in his victory speech.
He praised other unsuccessful veteran politicians such as Bart Philemon, Timothy Bonga and Sasa Zibe for their service to the people and commended new members elect on their election victories.
The governor-elect said he would have preferred the nine open MPs from Morobe to remain in Lae as a bloc and not scatter into opposing camps during these times of political horse trading to form the next government.
“I will remain with my people until parliament is convened and warn all opposing factions not to attempt to kidnap me as it will be hard,” Naru said.
He said as governor he already had his work cut out for him and would support and work with any new Prime Minister.
He appealed to the successful new government to give fair consideration to Morobe MPs for the numbers they would be contributing, especially, a ministry for the province’s first female MP, Loujaya Toni.