Elections 2017

The Group was invited by the Government earlier this year to witness the pre-election environment, polling day, the counting and post-election period.

The members were appointed by the Secretary General from across the Commonwealth. They include experts from political, election, development, media, youth and gender fields.

Speaking before a large crowd in Popondetta, Oro Province, with PNC candidates Delilah Gore for Sohe Open, David Arore for Oro Regional and Sheldon Deilala for Ijivitari Open, Prime Minister Peter O’Neill, called for honesty in the opposition.

“Elections are not a time to play politics, elections are a time to stand up and tell the people what you would deliver for our country,” O’Neill said.

“The budget allocation is very straight forward and people need to understand the facts.

“This year our budget is 13 billion Kina.

Eastern Highlands Provincial Police Commander, Superintendent Alex N’Drasel said 700 personnel from NCD, Lae and Madang will be joining the 316 local police officers.

Police from NCD and Lae, including CS officers have already arrived in the province.

PPC N’Drasel said the PNG Defence Force Quick Response Unit will be arriving this week.

The province has been divided into two commands for Election Security Operation - an Eastern and Western Command.

The Commanders of the two zones are responsible for security there.

Among them were 49 females.

Eight hundred and eighteen of these candidates are contesting as independent while 502 were affiliated to a party.

Eastern Highlands Province tops the list of candidates contesting with 396, followed by Chimbu (320), Enga (162), Jiwaka (136), Southern Highlands (117), Western Highlands (117) and Hela (92).

The lowest number of candidates contesting is from Prime Minister Peter O’Neill’s electorate.

It has only 10 candidates putting their hand up to challenge the Prime Minister and leader of the People’s National Congress party.

Ganim told Loop PNG from Wabag that despite the challenges faced during the campaign period, he has delivered to the people and they will be making their decision.

“The choice is up to them. As far as I am concerned, I have delivered in this short span of time but will deliver more if given another term,” says Ganim.

Ganim is contesting under the People’s National Congress Party, the biggest coalition party in the government.

He unseated the former deputy prime minister Sam Abal in 2012 elections.

Ahi LLG polling team officers for the last election, Morris Aaron and Stephanie Amos, said they were sidelined from their duties without any explanation.

Supporting them were Ahi leaders Moses Aisen, Busi Kahata, Philip Pavey, Willie Amos and Bart Nako, who claim that changes were recently made by the Returning Officer for the Lae Open Electorate.

The leaders have raised serious concerns about his integrity and the manner in which last minute changes to key polling officers have been made.

Muthuvel visited places like Pililo and other outer islands of the south coast.

With the focus on his key priority areas, Muthuvel is confident in returning for the second term.

His key priority areas include:

Electoral Commissioner Patilias Gamato says intending candidates can collect the deposit slips for election nomination fees at PNGEC Finance Branch at the headquarters in Port Moresby, and in their respective provincial electoral offices.

PNGEC Media Officer Alphonse Muapi made this clarification after posts on social media questioning why ballot papers for the 2017 National Election had been printed without candidates not yet confirmed.

The nomination for intending candidates for the 111 seats in Parliament will open after the Issue of Writs by the Governor-General in nine days’ time.      

“Candidate posters are generated and produced separately, and contain candidate photos, their names and code numbers  are allocated after the order of draw at the close of nominations,” Muapi told Loop PNG.

Prime Minister Peter O’Neill revealed this in parliament today after he was asked by the member for Kavieng, Ben Micah to explain, as many assumed that an Mp’s term in parliament ends at the issue of writs.

Micah also sought answers from the prime minister on Section 27 of the Ombudsman Commission act that calls for all project funds to be frozen until after elections in order to avoid abuse.