ELECTION 2012 MEDIA BRIEFING - ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER

ELECTION 2012 MEDIA BRIEFING Thank you media for coming…. Ladies and gentlemen, this afternoon I am holding a joint media conference with the Registrar of Political Parties and Candidates Dr. Alphonse Gelu to address and clarify the hot issue at the moment – Political Horse Trading – as lobbying to form the next government in the 9th Parliament heats up. Dr. Gelu, thank you for your time. Firstly, I would like to address some urgent issues at hand and one of them is the issue surrounding the Imbonggu Open electorate seat in which TWO DECLARATIONS have been made in the last 48 hours. I am aware that sitting Member for Imbonggu Francis Awesa has been declared yesterday according to results on the PNGEC website. However, I am not aware of the current situation in which a second declaration was made just before midday today where the Returning Officer nullified the declaration of Francis Awesa and declared Pila Niningi as duly elected Member for Imbonggu. I am seeking legal clarification on the matter from PNGEC’s lawyers and will inform you in my next media briefing. On the issue surrounding the arrest of the Acting Returning Officer for Moresby North East Open electorate, I would like to confirm that he was arrested and charged yesterday afternoon at the Boroko police station and has been released on a K500 bail. In the light of this situation, I am now looking to appointing more neutral PNG Electoral Commission officers to take charge of both NCD Provincial electorate and Moresby North East Open electorate. On the issue of East New Britain Provincial electorate counting and elimination process being suspended for six (6) days now over unpaid allowances, I would like to inform you that we are currently addressing their grievances so that counting can resume and come to a conclusion with the declaration of the result. Taking in account delays in the counting process in less than 50 electorates nationwide, the extension of the date for the return of writs to His Excellency the Governor General appears to be the likely scenario. So far, writs all the writs for Hela and New Ireland provinces, Ialibu-Pangia, Kandep, Wapenamanda and Hagen have been returned. I expect writs for those declared electorates by the end of business tomorrow. Last week, I’ve set the deadline for all the writs to be returned to me by tomorrow Wednesday 25 July to give me enough time to go through the election results and returns to prepare my advice to the Governor General but unfortunately that is not likely the case now. I will now assess counting in those provinces that are still going on so that I can be able to estimate a time frame to advise the Governor General accordingly. Ladies and gentlemen, this brings to conclusion my statement for this afternoon’s media briefing. On the issue of political horse trading, I now invite Registrar of Political Parties and Candidates Dr. Alphonse Gelu to explain and clarify requirements of the Integrity Law. Dr. Gelu… APPROVED FOR RELEASE   ANDREW S. TRAWEN, CMG, MBE ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER Tuesday 24 July, 2012