Gulf Province

Police vehicles were damaged, the provincial police commander’s (PPC) house was ransacked then set alight while the provincial Electoral Commission office was looted.

The incident arose from the shooting death of a young man by a police officer on Thursday night.

Provincial police commander, Michael Pake, told Loop PNG that a response unit from the nation’s capital, temporarily based at his house, was involved in the incident.

“They were asleep when they heard noises outside so they came out to investigate,” the PPC says.

Returning officer for Kerema, Ronnie Havenggau, says the final stage of the preparation has been well organised.

Havenggau confirms that 127 candidates will be contesting for the regional as well as the two provincial seats.

He says 62 election officials will be covering the 152 wards in the 10 LLGs.

He adds that there are 243 polling venues in the two districts of Kerema and Kikori.

"We are using the 10 days designated to us to better coordinate the officials so as to cut down on unnecessary cost in the conduct of this important election process."

Returning Officer for Kerema Open Electorate, Ronney Havenggau, described to Loop PNG the atmosphere of the campaign period as being very peaceful since the start of the election process in April.

Havenggau confirms that the Electoral Commission office in Kerema Town has received its polling kits comprised mostly of the non-sensitive items.

Sensitive polling materials, like the ballot paper, ink rolls and candidate posters, will most likely arrive sometime next week.

Gulf Province has only two main electorates with a total of 151 wards.

At the moment, Malalaua station is inundated by flood water caused by heavy downpour and over-swelling of main river systems.

Woman candidate running for Gulf Regional Seat, Maso Raka, says it is a great challenge, one of which she cannot do herself and that she is not ashamed to say that Gulf Province is the least developed in the country.

“My vision is to work with non- government organisations and people who are specialised in mitigating loss that rise from climate change.”

Another 47 candidates have been nominated to contest for Kikori Open electorate and 50 candidates have been nominated to contest for the Kerema open electorate.

This brings the number of candidates nominated up to 144 in total.

Candidate box numbers were drawn at the Kerema Town Basketball court yesterday which saw candidates present pick up their box numbers.

An updated list of all the candidates will be released soon with the names of candidates and their designated box numbers.

This starts from the roads, school infrastructure and public offices to the lack of essential drugs in remote aid posts in the villages.

 In a visit to the province, Loop PNG interviewed key persons whose cries have been falling on deaf ears.

On a media tour to Lese Oala Catholic Aidpost in East Kerema, community health worker and officer in charge, Adamson Patanio expressed his concern about the shortage of essential drugs and specialized equipment for patients.

Minister for Petroleum and Energy, Nixon Duban, said the Government respected the decision by Total as the decision wass based on project economics.

Duban made the statement in Parliament this week when asked by Kairuku-Hiri MP, Peter Isoiamo, to clarify on where the plant site would be as the Caution Bay location is situated within his jurisdiction and close to the PNG LNG Site.

Gulf Governor, Havila Kavo, has been vocal about having the plant site in his Province and not in Central Province.

TB officer Akita Korua says the purpose of the awareness was to educate the people on TB, a curable disease that can be treated with medication if patients are faithful and complete their medication within 6 - 8 months.

The World TB Day event was launched in Kerema town on Friday with the theme for this year, ‘Leave no one behind’, a call to everyone to take ownership of initiatives to stop TB in Gulf Province.

Koaru village in particular has been hard hit by rising sea level caused by climate change and majority of the villagers have been moving inland to resettle away from the coast.

The village has a population of  more than 800 people and has been dependent on water from wells dug out from the sand over the years. It was recently that they discovered the taste of the water turning salty.

A senior public servant, who did not want to be named, expressed his dissatisfaction and frustration over the lack of proper drainage for the sub district of Kerema. He believes this is the main reason why Malalaua is always flooded during wet season.

“Most of the houses were built during the colonial era and have low posts so flood water usually enters when it’s a very heavy rain,” he stated.

“Malalaua is the gateway to the Gulf Province and just by first impression, it looks like a typical village.”