Lera retains Bougainville Regional seat

The current sitting Member for Bougainville Regional seat Joe Lera has retained his seat after polling 39,912 votes in the 6th exclusion.

The URP candidate maintained a strong lead in the election that saw him collecting constant votes in all counts.

Lera was officially declared this afternoon at 1:24pm PNG Time and 2:24pm Bougainville Standard Time (BST) at the Hutjena counting centre by the PNGEC Bougainville Provincial Electoral Manager, Desmond Timiyaso.

The declaration was witnessed by PNGEC officials, police, scrutineers, students and the general public that were present at the counting centre.

In his address the newly elected member thanked God for his victory stating that despite all the negative and false accusation made against him during campaign time, God has spoken through the people and have set the truth free.

He said his victory is for the ordinary grassroots people of Bougainville and thanked them for having the trust and confidence in him to mandate him as their leader for the second time.

Lera said in the next five years he will continue on from where he left to maintain and prepare Bougainville in terms of good governance and service delivery towards referendum.

He adds that he will work with the Autonomous Bougainville Government and also maintain a good channel of communication between both governments.

Lera said that often he had been accused for not speaking on the issue of Bougainville’s referendum whilst he was more concern on the good governance side of referendum in term of services and development.

He assures that he will take on the issue of Bougainville’s referendum and Peace Agreement in his second term more aggressively.

 

(File picture)

Author: 
Press Release