Yangoru-Saussia villagers threaten to boycott election

Four villages from the Sikau Range of Yangoru-Saussia electorate in East Sepik have pledged to boycott the 2012 general election, citing a lack of essential government services.
Spokesman Robin Fito said youths from the Singu, Pangu, Howi and Womaina villages were taking the stand as successive government had failed to deliver basic services such as roads, aid posts or a water supply.
He said people in the area had great difficulty in finding fresh water.
Fito said their MPs should be blamed for not providing such services to their electorate.
The youths are now working on a petition they will give to the Electoral Commission stating their stand and that there was to be no campaigning in any of the three villages.
They said intending candidates and polling officials who defied their warning and conducted any election activity in their ward area would be doing so at their own risk.
Fito said their immediate need was a water supply and a decent road to transport their cash and food crops to markets in town.
He said unless these services reached them in the next nine months,
there would be no election in their ward area.