Enga Province

Provincial election manager Anton Iamau confirmed that polling officials are now doing pre-counting of ballot papers in Wabag Town.

Iamau said earlier that all 1,156 ballot boxes arrived in the province last week.

He said there are enough security personnel of both police and defence force on ground to provide security during polling. 

Enga consists of five electorates, 411 polling teams, 364 Wards and 18 LLGs.

After the pre-counting is done, the ballot boxes will be distributed to the five electorates.

Enga regional candidate Robert Pati has called on electoral officials and security personnel deployed to conduct elections in the Highlands region to be on alert.

Pati said this following rumours of ballot papers floating around with some marked as legal and ready to be counted in favour of certain candidates.

Pati said to elect good leaders, the elections must be transparent and violence free.

He highlighted that voters must exercise their democratic rights without ballot papers being hijacked by desperate candidates.

The province received one container last week containing 316 ballot boxes out of the total 1,156 boxes.

Enga election manager Anton Iamau said two more containers arrived yesterday in the province and they are now counting the total number of ballot boxes they contain.

Iamau said the highlands region requires metal ballot boxes to be used for polling.

However, from the two containers they received yesterday, one contains metal ballot boxes while the other contains clear ballot boxes.

The awareness is focused on the process of how to vote and also to educate people on the separate polling booths for men and women.

Enga election manager, Anton Iamau, explained that the awareness educates the public on the right to vote as well.

Iamau confirmed that they have received materials from the PNG Electoral Commission (PNGEC) and officials are carrying out awareness to all communities in the province.

Enga election manager, Anton Iamau, confirmed that the province has so far received only one container containing 316 ballot boxes out of a total of 1,156 boxes.

Iamau told Loop PNG that he is expecting two containers containing 840 ballot boxes to arrive in the province by June 9.

Once all boxes arrive, they will be labeled ‘Open’ and ‘Regional’ separately before they are dispersed to polling venues in the districts, accompanied by the polling teams.

The Central Committal Court issued a warrant of arrest for Nelson David Yakan (29) from Sopos village, Wabag, Enga Province, after he escaped from the Committal Court precinct while being escorted to court.

His arrest warrant will return to court on June 15 for review. He was remanded at Bomana when brought to court for mention where he escaped.

Yakan was arrested on Jan 17 and charge with wilfully and unlawfully killing a Paul Sope on Jan 13 at 14-Mile outside Port Moresby.

He was also charged with the attempted murder of Jack Ninkama.

Giro Pakil Gideon from Enga Province pleaded guilty to cutting a Peter Aki using a bush knife in the early hours of October 3, 2015 at Makana, Nine-Mile.

He told the court he cut Aki after the victim told him that he was the man responsible for the death of his step father.

The two were in the company of others the previous night drinking when Aki told Gideon he killed his father.

Gideon then took his revenge and cut Aki in his sleep.

The court heard he sat on Aki’s legs and slashed his head four times, leaving four deep wounds.

The police station and vehicle were from the District Services Improvement Program (DSIP) funds.

Commissioner Baki, Foreign Affairs Minister and local MP, Rimbink Pato, Assistant Commissioner of Police for logistic Tony Duwang and the Provincial Police Commander George Kakas, were in Wapenamanda to officially receive the new infrastructure and vehicle.

Two new police stations are still under construction in the Lower Lai and Tsak valley. Both buildings are expected to be completed before the end of June.

Initiated in 2016, BNL’s ‘Job Ready Program (JRP),’ has successfully passed 120 Porgera locals who completed four weeks of basic skills training.

The training has resulted in 72 locals securing permanent employment within the Porgera joint Venture.

 The remaining are either on temporary roles or undergoing some form of further training respective to the job placement requirements.

Amanda Larap, from Yarik village which is located in the Special Mine Lease (SML) area is now undergoing training to be a fitter machinist with the Maintenance Training section.

Ruben Tongole, the community development officer with the Porgera District Administration said this following the completion of renovation works on his home last month by PJV.

A 20 year career public servant, Ruben received keys to his ‘new look’ home on February 16 at Paiam in the presence of Deputy District Administrator, Epenes Nakipane, and local contractor representatives.