MEDIA RELEASE NEW GUINEA ISLANDS HAS BECOME THE FIRST REGION TO COMPLETE 2013 LLG ELECTIONS IN THE COUNTRY The New Guinea Islands Region has become the first region in the country to successfully complete its 2013 LLG elections. New Ireland and West New Britain provinces returned all their election writs this morning to the Electoral Commission headquarters in Port Moresby – East New Britain and Manus had already returned their writs. Provincial Returning Officers and Assistant Returning Officers for New Ireland and Western New Britain attributed the successful conclusion of their respective elections to team work and team spirit with the full backing of their provincial administrations, stakeholders and the people. The LLG elections in NGI were also very educational for the people as they witnessed counting and declaration of results in their communities and have educated themselves and appreciated how the limited preferential voting (LPV) system worked. Upon receipt of the writs Electoral Commissioner Andrew Trawen congratulated and commended the four NGI provinces for producing a good election outcome as they have always done over the years. Mr. Trawen expressed his gratitude to all the four provincial administrations in NGI for their wonderful support in ensuring that the 2013 LLG elections in the region was conducted peacefully and successfully. He said conducting elections in PNG has become a very expensive exercise for the government and the Commission is looking at holding both the National and Local-level Government elections concurrently in 2017. “Under the law both national and LLG elections are to be held concurrently but I used my discretion as Commissioner in 2007-2008 and 2012-2013 to hold them separately to avoid inconvenience and chaotic situations, especially confusion of ballot papers,” Mr. Trawen said. Meanwhile, Southern region is next to complete its LLG elections. Milne Bay and Oro provinces returned all their election writs last week while Gulf has completed its elections and will return the writs any time this week. Western province is the at the scrutiny (counting) stage of its elections and is expected to complete counting and have all its presidents and ward members declared before 30 August deadline. APPROVED FOR RELEASE BY: ANDREW S. TRAWEN, CMG, MBE ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER Tuesday 20th August, 2013
Posted on: Tue, 20 Aug 2013 05:00:22 +0000
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