2017 National Elections

Counting of the last two ballot boxes, 40 and 41, from the Mekeo LLG, was delayed on Thursday after polling and counting officials complained over issues of nonpayment of allowances.

Polling officials for teams seven and eight of Mekeo LLG have refused to be present to open the ballot boxes for counting because they are yet to get paid; the last two boxes were brought in by these two teams.

Kairuku-Hiri Returning Officer Tabu Vaira said the presiding officers from these teams must be present to open the ballot boxes.

There are 32 boxes in total; officials are now on their 30th box and will be moving onto the 31st shortly.

Returning Officer Simon Sakipa says they are prepping to do quality check sometime this afternoon and will continue into elimination during the weekend.

The progressive tally: 

The progressive result:

Among the 26 declared seats are hot seats Ialibu-Pangia Open, Bulolo Open and Kavieng Open.

Prime Minister and Member-elect for Ialibu-Pangia, Peter O’Neill, was declared on July 15 while PANGU Party leader Sam Basil was declared as the Member-elect for Bulolo Open the next day. 

The political party with the highest number of members declared so far is People’s National Congress (PNC) Party with 10 followed by PANGU Party (5) and National Alliance (4).

The People's Nationa Congress member polled 22,074 votes after the 24th exclusion to reach 50.1 percent of the total number of ballot papers from the district, to win back the seat he had held for three terms.

Candidate John Kaeo collected 7,600 votes to finish second.

Pundari thanked electors, election officials and security personnel for working together towards his peaceful victory.

More than 28 candidates contested the Kompiam-Ambum Open seat.

Counting for other seats, including the regional seat, are continuing.

Marape says they respect the view of NA if they feel they are a better alternative to a People’s National Congress-led coalition government.

This follows the announcement by Member-elect for Namatanai, Walter Schnaubelt, in Port Moresby this week that NA was confident of forming the next government.

NA was a major coalition partner under the PNC-led government.

Marape said PNC was equally confident and will have more members when they head into camp.

Progressive results for Moresby North-East after count 119 are as follows;      

Returning Officer Cherobin Vaiang told Loop PNG that counting officials will now do a quality check to balance the votes of each candidate this afternoon.  

Below are the top three candidates on the progressive tally after count 29;  

Madang open candidate Bryan Kramer has held his spot until the last boxes were counted.

After the final count 60, Kramer bagged 15,621 votes on primary votes alone.

The progressive result: