The National Alliance party has dominated the Local Level Government ward council presidential elections in the Namatanai district, winning five out of six LLG seats against the dominant political party - People’s Progress Party.
The five Local Level Government seats that NA candidates won include Sentral Niu Ailan, Namatanai Rural, Nimamar, Matalai and Konoagil while it lost remote Tanir LLG to a PPP candidate.
The presidents elect in each LLG are Ben Sakbua replacing incumbent president Graham Lali (Sentral Niu Ailan), Pastor Joshua Takin Soi (Namatanai Rural) fills the gap left by late Michael Singan, Stanley Tunut (Nimamar) unseats incumbent and deputy governor Ambrose Silul, Augustine Topi (Matalai) retains his seat, Isaac Tosel (Konoagil) takes over from sitting president James Pandi and Felix Kaltubim (Tanir) replaces former president Alfred Lafen.
Namatanai MP and Secretary General of NA party, Walter Schnaubelt, congratulated all six LLG presidents and said he will work with them to trigger in ‘wind of change’ in the district through effective partnership approach at the LLG and ward level.
“I am ready to work with you in unity and participation to serve our communities,” Schnaubelt said.
Sakbua, who represents the largest LLG (Sentral Niu Ailan) with 22 wards in the electorate, said he is prepared to device workable plans to put the LLG back on track through collaborative effort.
“I want to see that we all work together as a team and bring change and develop our respective wards under coordinated efforts at the LLG level.
“We have a staunch political leader in honourable Walter Schnaubelt who is ready to work with us to deliver development to our doorstep at the ward levels,” he said.
Namatanai LLG president Pastor Joshua Soi, who also vowed to work with the current Namatanai MP, said: “I raised my hands for the LLG elections and the president seat because of the leadership of our MP Walter Schnaubelt. With his support, I am pretty assured that we can fix up many things that had gone wrong in the past.”
Moreover, to the island of gold (Lihir) Nimamar Local Level Government president elect Stanley Tunut said his first agenda now is to get organised and fight for outstanding Lihir royalties owed to his people, thus working in partnership with the Namatanai MP to see DSIP funds trickle down to his LLG.
Similarly, the newly created Matalai LLG, its president Augustine Topi’s immediate focus now is to restore Titigo government station and work closely with Schnaubelt to deliver much-needed services to the people of Matalai.
Further south, Konoagil president elect Isaac Tosel also echoed similar sentiments and wants to give priority to map out ward development plan in the LLG to boost the progress of development at the ward level.
(Filepic: Namatanai MP and Secretary General of NA party, Walter Schnaubelt)