The National Government is yet to finalise the dates for the Local Level Government elections to be held this year.
Responding to questions raised by the East Sepik Governor Allan Bird, Prime Minister Peter O’Neil said he should provide an answer next week.
East Sepik Governor, Allan Bird raised a serious of questions in parliament on Friday concerning the Local Level Government elections scheduled for this year.
While the Government has confirmed that the LLG elections will take place this year, only tentative dates have been set.
Prime Minister Peter O’Neil said the dates will be finalised as soon as they get the final clarity from the office of the Attorney General.
“We’ve got some conflicting legal advice on the delays of the dates that we have set. We will make that clarity next week as soon as the Attorney General and his office give us a very clear legal advice on our position on when we can have elections, given the fact that there are outstanding allowances that have been claimed by many councillors and presidents right throughout the country that we need to settle that before we have the elections and that is the position of the Government.
With the confusion on the election of the LLG Presidents, the Prime Minister said the choice of Provinces to either let the people vote for their LLG presidents or let the ward councillor’s vote is not a new option and should not be confusing.
“We have practiced that in the past. There are some provinces that have allowed the entire LLG to vote for the presidents, whereas in other provinces they have allowed the ward councillors to vote their president. So it is not something new so people should not be misleading the public and making statements that are going to confuse everybody.
The Prime Minister said if anybody does not like my instructions, they can go and find another job.