Sitting Kavieng MP Ben Micah was among candidates who filed their nomination today, the last day of nominations for the 2017 National Elections.
Micah will be running against 22 other candidates to retain his seat, this includes three female candidates.
His nomination was witnessed by the founder of People Progress Party, Sir Julius Chan, New Ireland Governor and fellow PPP member, Namatanai MP Byron Chan who filed his nominations last Friday (April 21).
New Ireland Election Manager Glenson Laena told Loop PNG from Kavieng that Ron Meli was the last candidate who filed his nomination this afternoon to contest the Kavieng Open seat.
In the Namatanai Open seat, Chan will be running against nine other candidates. No female candidates will be contesting this seat.
As for New Ireland Regional seat, Laena said 16 intending candidates filed the Form 29 (bio form) to contest however, only 15 filed nominations as off 4pm today.
Nelson Hungrabos was the last to file his nominations this afternoon.
Only one female is in the race against New Ireland Governor Sir Julius Chan, who was the first to file nominations last Thursday.
Sir Julius is contesting the national elections for the eleventh time, making him one of only two longest serving members of Parliament who have been in politics for more than 40 years to date.
The New Ireland Election Manager said overall, nominations in the province turned out well, with today seeing the biggest crowd at the nomination of Ben Micah.
At the close of nominations, names were drawn by election officials for the candidates’ ballot box numbers.
Picture source: Sesa Kapu of Peoples Progress Party page.