Powes Parkop

The count currently stands at 64.

Progressive results as of 9am has seen some changes in the top 5 running candidates.

Powes Parkop is still in the lead with 6,686 votes, Andy Bawa with 3,229 votes and Michael Kandiu with 3,081 votes. 

Robert Agen and Jamie Maxton Graham have both dropped out of the top 5 category.

He said this today during a gathering of supporters at the Jack Pidik Park at Five-Mile today.

Following two deferrals of counting for the NCD Regional and three Open seats, Parkop gathered his supporters in public to air his frustrations.

He said a simple process for counting has taken them five years to prepare for. Many other excuses were lame and stupid, and an insult to their intelligence.

A planned peaceful march by Parkop’s supporters to the Electoral Commission has been put aside.

In 2012, polling was deferred to a day after the scheduled date for this electorate.

This year, polling has been deferred once more. However, this time, affecting all electorates of NCD.

Current NCD Governor Powes Parkop recalls the 2012 elections.

“And in terms of the counting, I was the last to be declared. When Peter O’Neil was elected as the Prime Minister, I was not yet a Member of Parliament. It’s like a bad dream coming back,” he says.

On Tuesday the Electoral Commissioner declared Friday June 30 as the rescheduled date for NCD polling.

One of such is the need to bring in a neutral person, like a foreigner or most possibly, the United Nations, to run the elections.

This suggestion was made by the sitting Governor Powes Parkop, who described rumours of unethical conduct by certified officials as disgusting.

“Nationals don’t seem to have the ability to deliver smooth, fair and peaceful elections. It’s about time we swallow our pride and allow the EC to be led by a neutral person – a foreigner,” he said.

Governor Parkop pointed to election practice in other countries such as Solomon Islands and Fiji.

Sitting Governor for the National Capital District, Powes Parkop, said it was a long, challenging and tiring campaign for the candidates and the people have done well in keeping it relatively peaceful.

Parkop thanked all residents for the successful campaign period and said it showed a sign of progress and being more civil during the elections.

“I’m very confident that the election will continue to be peaceful in the nation’s capital.

Parkop who is the Social Democratic Party leader expressed disappointment in the Electoral Commission’s decision to conduct one day polling in some provinces in the country.

He said it will not work considering the logistics involved in transporting ballot boxes and other important election equipment and materials to designated polling sites throughout the country.

Highlighted in the party’s policies is addressing unemployment and creating more jobs by setting up down-stream processing of PNG resources.

And also by converting machine dependent activities into labour based.

Party leader Powes Parkop said he tried in the nation’s capital but was not successful due to no economies to scale.

“It will succeed if we do it nationwide and if the change is structurally done,” stated the NCD Governor.

Included in its party policies, the SDP plans to reduce personal taxes and progressively increase the minimum tax thresholds over a period of time.

Party leader and candidate for NCD Governor seat, Powes Parkop, said they will encourage personal savings and individual spending on goods and services.

The policy outlines that the spending will lead to acceleration in economic growth, reducing the need for Government deficit.

When people save, it will lead to capital formation and investment, reducing the need for the Government to borrow.

Parkop highlighted that SDP is focused on returning the economic growth to 10-12 percent, like it used to be in 2012, 2013 and 2014, before it slipped down to around 2-3 percent.

Parkop says the Government needs to sustain the economy as we cannot grow the economy then let it drop again.

He explained that SDP has a multi-prolonged growth strategy that will deliver results now and sustain it over the years. These include getting the next LNG project into construction now and having a series of large capital projects properly planned and sequenced.

Party leader and sitting Governor for the National Capital District, Powes Parkop, says they aim to address the economic situation that the country is facing with their economic policy plan.

Parkop highlighted that the economic situation includes unemployment, debt level, money supply among people and foreign exchange crises.

The Party policies include accelerating economic growth, lowering personal taxes, creating more local jobs, promoting tourism industries and building quality infrastructure and transport.