Papua New Guinea held its breath as the nation’s capital city braced itself for the much publicized parliament seating.
Within the last eight weeks, PNG became fascinated with two political camps – the Laguna and the Crown camp.
The suburb of Waigani was on lockdown today while the disciplinary forces were out to ensure normalcy continued.
Traffic on the road was somewhat casual but it was business as usual, apart from a few schools that did not allow classes.
Also in Waigani, the Laguna camp has subsequently picked up momentum and public attention since its numbers increased over the past few days, which saw a large crowd gathering outside its gates since early this morning.
It is unclear whether they were there to take part in the proposed march to parliament, or just curious about what was taking place inside the camp.
In other parts of the city, police set up roadblocks to ensure safety of residents and prevent opportunists from taking advantage of what is a sensitive period in the country’s political history.
Despite the proposed march to Parliament, the Laguna camp instead boarded buses to be transported to the venue.
Likewise, the 44-member team from the Crown camp travelled in buses with heavy police escort to the parliament house.
(The gathering outside Laguna Hotel, Waigani)