MEDIA STATEMENT - Tuesday 20th August, 2013 ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER WARNS AGAINST CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE, VIOLENCE AND RETRIBUTION IN AFFECTED PROVINCES IN THE HIGHLANDS - Environment must be conducive for supplementary elections. In this quick media briefing, I want to inform the people and leaders of the 19 LLGs in the Highlands as well as the rest of PNG that my decision to nullify the elections for the 19 local-level government areas in six Highlands provinces is FIRM and will not make changes to my decision. And I warned all candidates, their supporters and leaders including Members of Parliament and communities of the affected provinces to exercise common sense and refrain from orchestrating civil disobedience, violence and retribution as a direct result of my decision to fail the elections. If there is civil disobedience, violence and retribution as a direct result of my decision then I will have no hesitation to put on hold any future elections in the affected areas indefinitely. Regarding the situation in Western Highlands province, a small delegation from the Western Highlands provincial administration led by the administrator Joseph Neng met with my election operations team this morning and requested that I rescind my decision. But my decision still stands and there is no way I will rescind my original decision to fail the elections in the 19 LLGs in the Highlands. This is to safe guard democratic election processes and procedures for the best interest of the country as a whole. If appropriate action is not taken now under relevant election laws of our country then our children, our children’s children will NEVER VOTE in elections in Papua New Guinea. That is why as Electoral Commissioner and as head of the election management body in PNG, I must exercise my legal responsibility. I want to re-emphasize here that I made the decision to fail the elections because proper democratic election processes and procedures such as voting by the electoral roll, use of indelible ink, secret ballot (use of polling booths) including others that I’ve mentioned in my earlier statements were not being followed. I am appealing to the people and leaders of the affected provinces not to jeopardize their democratic right to have representation in the provincial assemblies if they continue to engage in disruptive and illegal manner. The provincial and district leadership should take ownership and responsibility of any form of civil disobedience, violence and retribution. To conclude, I must re-echo my warning that if the environment is not conducive for supplementary elections in the affected areas, I will not advise the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Inter-Government Relations to issue new writs for supplementary elections. Thank you. ANDREW S. TRAWEN, CMG, MBE ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER Tuesday 20th August, 2013
Posted on: Tue, 20 Aug 2013 07:44:45 +0000
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