Madang Regional Seat

Comedian Kanage, Alphonse Dirau eliminated as the 24th candidate for Madang Regional

This news room was informed of the top five candidates as of 7.30am this morning. They are as follows.

  1. Ramsey Pariwa                  70, 872
  2. Jerry Singirok                     41, 331              
  3. Peter Yama                        27, 823
  4. Benny Panti                       23, 257
  5. Steven Asivo                      22,875

Elimination of the 25th candidate is currently underway.

Pariwa leads Madang regional count

This newsroom was informed that Elimination 15 is underway.

The following are the top five candidates after Elimination 14.

1. Ramsy Pariwa 66,244  

2. Jerry  Singirok  38,068

3. Peter Yama 24,886      

4. Benny Panti  21,918   

5. Steven Asivo  21, 365       

From Comedy To Politics

He says it is worth a try for the 2022 elections and nominated last Thursday. Dirau and is among 40 other candidates.

Dirau is among big names like two former Madang governors, James Yali and Jim Kas, former Defense Force commander, Jerry Singirok, who is contesting under the PANGU Pati.

Four women are also in for the race for Madang’s top seat.

Madang Election Manager, Sponsa Navi raised concern that with the introduction of social media the supporters of each candidates must be careful when campaigning on social media.

Quiet Start For Madang Nominations

Among those who nominated yesterday was a female candidate, contesting for Rai Coast Open Seat, Kessy Sawang. She is contesting under the People`s First Party banner.

More candidates for Madang regional, Middle Ramu and Raicoast turned up at the Bates Oval today to sign their nomination forms provided by the electoral officers.

The other locations in the province set for nominations were, Bogia station for the Bogia Open candidates, Walium station for the Usino Bundi candidates and Sumgulbar LLG office for the Sumkar Open candidates.

Recount for Madang Regional ordered

The recount order was issued after the court found that James Yali, who was a parolee when he nominated to contest the election, was not eligible.

The court dismissed Yali's petition that was challenging Peter Yama's election today.

Yali’s conviction and sentence would have finished on 18 December 2017. His inclusion in the election affected the results.

He finished second while Retired Defense Force Commander Major-General Jerry Singirok finished third.

The court however upheld Jerry Singirok’s petition and set aside Yama's election, ordering a recount.

Singirok’s petition set for trial

The election petition filed by Retired Defense Force Commander Major-General Jerry Singirok has been set for trial from 8th to 9th of February 2018 at the Madang National Court.

In this petition, Singirok is alleging that there were acts of bribery and undue influence during the elections

He is also raising questions on election runner-up, James Yali’s qualification to nominate and stand for election. Yali is not a party to that petition.