Polling for the 2022 National General Elections started today Monday the 04th of July, but already Manus province has announced a delay in its polling schedule. The Acting Provincial Election Manager for Manus Mr. Tony Balema said he received approval from the Papua New Guinea Electoral Commission (PNGEC) head office in Port Moresby after requesting for a delay due to issues with logistics and the late arrival of election materials to the provincial capital, Lorengau. He said the delay is for two days meaning that the people of Manus will go to the polls on Wednesday 06th of July. According to Mr. Belama, the election materials arrived just last week Friday delivered by aircraft and that had to force the election team on ground to quickly go through the final checks before the deployment of the ballot boxes and papers, the plastic seals, and other important pieces of items to the various polling sites around the island province. He said the delivery of the election materials, the security personnel and election teams will also be supported by the Papua New Guinea Defense Force (PNGDF) maritime element stationed at the Lombrum Naval base. “The first lot of materials will be transported by this evening to the Nigoherm and Aua-Wuvulu LLG (Local Level Government) areas as these two are the furthest away,” said the acting provincial election manager. He added that the rest of the election materials is expected to depart Lorengau tomorrow to the areas that are closer and easier to access. Meanwhile, the two PNGDF vessels, the HMPNGS Tarangau and the HMPNGS Ted Diro, will be engaged to transport election teams, materials, and members of the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary (RPNGC) and the Correctional Services (CS) to provide security for polling on the outer islands.  

It will be one-day polling for the various provinces in the highlands region with security teams moving between provinces to provide security on the respective polling days as per the polling schedule. The Papua New Guinea (PNG) Electoral Commissioner, Mr. Simon Sinai, said polling for the highlands is scheduled to start on Monday the 04th of July with Hela province to go first. For the Enga province the polling day will be on the 07th of July, Southern Highlands province polling day will be on the 11th of July, Jiwaka and Western Highlands province will be on the 13th of July, and wrapping up with polling for Simbu province to be conducted on the 15th of July. “This arrangement was made in consultation with police because an election cannot be run without police,” said Mr. Sinai. The Electoral Commissioner further said that they had a meeting with Police Commissioner David Manning last week and agreed to this. “We should work on a schedule in that order because there’ll be relocation from one location to another. All the provinces are ready, it’s just that police will be moving so that’s why we have the days spaced out between.” Mr. Sinai added that polling for the other regions should start also on the 04th of July, but if there should be issues, further arrangements will be made. “Those who have difficulties and late arrivals of materials (election materials), they can always poll on the fifth (05th July) or the sixth (06th July), as long as they make sure they make better awareness that they are affected in certain locations and that they want to defer polling,” explained Mr. Sinai. Meanwhile, most of the election materials have been transported to the various provinces and from there, they are transported to the various districts, Local Level Governments, and Wards in preparation for polling to start next week.

The Integrity of Political Parties and Candidates Commission has praised political parties for their excellent support so far for the women candidates which they have endorsed for the 2022 National General Election. The Acting Registrar of Political Parties, Mr. Emmanuel Pok, said this is something significant displayed in this election which has increased the chances of women of being elected to office. “Unlike previous elections, in this election political parties have endorsed a significant number of female candidates and going in and supporting them in their campaigns with their candidate posters and banners. That’s the support that women are receiving,” said the acting registrar. Mr. Pok said the second significant support is that parliamentary leaders of political parties are actually going into the districts and provinces to campaign for their female candidates. “That’s never been done or at some stage the support did not come fully as expected by the women candidates, but in the 2022 national election the political parties did that so we are hoping that at least three or four women can come home in the election.” Meanwhile, the Commission is pleased so far with the conduct of the 53 registered political parties during this election. The acting registrar said so far, they have not been any major or a high number of election related violence or incidents apart from the few reported in the country’s highlands region, where posters and political party banners were damaged by people. He added that a total of 3, 506 candidates were nominated for this election, of which 3, 364 are male while 142 are female candidates, and of that total 1, 330 candidates both male and female, are endorsed by political parties. The Commission conducted surveys in 13 provinces and has seen this outstanding support by political parties and is hoping this continues until the national election wraps up.

The new club in the 2022 Moni Plus Port Moresby Australian Football League (AFL) premiership, the Alavana Swans, continues to raise the interest of youths in the sport with the home games it hosts in the big village of Hula, Central province. Just last weekend the club hosted its third home game at the Raukele Park where it took on the competition heavyweight the Bismark Maritime West Eagles in front of home fans. The Swans lost that match, but the focus remains and that is to gain more interest from the young population so to have more of them playing footy and even have a chance to one day represent the country in international games. “The Swans will host a couple more home games in this season, maybe about three more games to go,” said the Port Moresby AFL Association President Mr. Douglas Lai. The Swans is the only rural team participating in the Port Moresby competition and it is hoped that this footy spirit will spread to the neighbouring villages as well. Meanwhile, the Swans will be coming to the city this weekend to play against the Gerehu Magpies on Sunday in both the Seniors and Reserve divisions. The Swans currently sit on the tenth place of the competition ladder of both the Seniors and Reserve divisions.

The West Sepik Province Electoral Office is making the final preparations for its teams to conduct the polling and counting by providing the final training to the election teams to cover the districts as it waits for the last lot of election materials to arrive by the end of this week. The Provincial Election Manager Ms. Salote Kai confirmed that most of the election materials have already arrived in the province transported in with the assistance of the Australian Defence Force, but the last lot of things required by the election teams , which are the stationary items for the team members to use, are yet to arrive. She said these items should be transported to the province by ship and should be in by this Friday before the election teams are sent out to the various district to prepare for polling. Meanwhile, most of the election teams are ready for deployment to the four electorates to conduct polling come the 04th of July. The provincial election manager said most of the teams are ready after completing training for polling and counting and should be sent out to the districts by this Saturday in preparation for polling next week Monday. “The last lot of Assistant Returning Officers and elections teams should wrap up their trainings this week before they are deployed.” Ms. Kai added that the final group are the teams for Nuku and Aitape- Lumi districts and they have started their two days training today with training conducted for the members at their respective district centers, while the teams to cover the Vanimo Green and Telefomin districts have already completed their training and are awaiting to be deployed out of the provincial capital, Vanimo. She said once all the teams are ready, their deployment to the various polling sites should take place on the weekend. “Some teams will be transported by plane to the districts only reachable by air and the other teams will go by vehicles to areas accessible by roads,” she said. The provincial election manager added that so far it has been trouble- free in the province with no election related violence or incidents. She hopes things will remain this way until the whole 2022 National General Election completes.  

Although things have picked up from the devastating impacts of the COVID- 19 pandemic, there are still challenges that Nambawan Super Limited (NSL) must overcome to ensure it delivers to its members and their contributions. Speaking at the recent 2022 Nambawan Super Employers Conference, the NSL Board Chairman Mr. Reg Monagi told the members and their employers that this year has its own challenges as the year progresses compared to 2021 when things picked up and looked good for NSL returns on investments that translated into some good outcome for members’ contributions. “Last year the fund achieved a net surplus of five hundred and twenty-six million, which resulted in the growth of its net assets to eight- point- eight billion and a declaration of six and a half percent crediting rate to more than two hundred and fourteen thousand Nambawan Super members,” said the chairman. He added that in 2021 the fund made benefit payments totaling K778 million through retirement savings accounts, unemployment benefits, housing advances, and payments on members' exit from the workforce. “Despite the improved results, 2021 has not been without its challenges. The NSL board and management have worked tirelessly to overcome the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic to deliver these good returns for our members and we are pleased with the overall performance of the fund in 2021.” However, Mr. Monagi admits that 2022 has its own challenges brought about by global and domestic events. “2022 is delivering new challenges, global markets have been volatile as they react to the Ukraine and Russia conflict and resulting fuel and now food shortage and global inflation is rising quickly, meaning the cost of living is increasing,” Mr. Monagi further elaborated. He said domestically there are several unfavorable conditions in the local market that are adding to this and one major challenge the fund has already encountered is that of the state-imposed Market Concentration Levy on the BSP Financial Group. “With these challenges in mind we aim to remain diligent, focusing on delivering to our members and working to build better futures over the term,” he said. Mr. Monagi said this is because NSL has increased its member assets in the past decade and continues to work around challenges to deliver to them and will continue to do so. The Nambawan Super Employer Conference was held at the Stanley Hotel in Port Moresby on Friday 24th June and was attended by NSL members, and their employers and saw speeches and presentations given by NSL management, including by the Chief Executive Officer Mr. Paul Sayer.

The Bismarck Maritime West Eagles is the team to beat in the 2022 Moni Plus Port Moresby Australia Football League (AFL) season as they continue to reign over everybody else. According to the President of the Port Moresby AFL Association Mr. Douglas Lai, the Eagles sit at the top of the competition ladder of the Senior Men’s division. “The Eagles are sitting on top of the ladder with 24 points after recording six straight wins out of six matches so far since the season started,” said the president. Looking at the top five, Mr. Lai said results from game six of round one last weekend, has seen the Lamana Dockers trail behind the West Eagles on second spot with 20 points, the Cats are on the third spot with 20 points as well, separated by a 42% difference. The Concept Koboni is on fourth place with 16 points and new team Port Power on fifth spot with 16 points as well but separated by a 72% difference. However, it’s a different affair on the top five spot of the ladder in the Men’s Reserve Division. New team Port Power is sitting on top with 20 points followed by West Eagles on second place also with 20 points but separated by a 64% difference. On the third place is Gordons Kokofas with 20 points but separated by 35% from the Eagles. The University Tigers sit on the fourth spot with 12 points followed by Concept Koboni on fifth with 12 points, separated by 18% difference. Meanwhile in the Women’s Division, Concept Koboni lead the ladder with 20 points followed closely behind by Lamana Dockers on second place with 20 points as well, separated by 66% difference. The Gordons Kokofas sit on the third place with 12 points, West Eagles on fourth place with 8 points followed by the Gerehu Magpies on 8 points as well but separated by a 42% difference. The University Tigers sit on the sixth spot with 4 points.

Papua New Guineans living overseas wanting to cast their votes in this 2022 National General Election will continue to use postal voting system instead of just going online to cast their votes for their candidates. According to the Papua New Guinea (PNG) Electoral Commissioner Mr. Simon Sinai, Papua New Guineans overseas can start applying to vote now through the PNG Embassy or High Commission offices. The applications will be processed through the Department of Foreign Affairs and then the names will be checked and confirm by the Returning Officer if they’re on the electoral roll. Mr. Sinai said if everything is in order, then the postal ballot papers will be sent over to those that have applied to vote, which they will later send back with the postal envelope. “We have no electronic arrangements yet, there is no law covering the electronic system so we’ll just have to go manually but the process is a little bit long,” said the electoral commissioner. Mr. Sinai further explained that there are two different categories of the postal voting system. One is for those people overseas, the other one is for those security personnel that are currently engaged in the election security operations. “Those ones we can get their names, check them and send it (Postal vote) to them. At least one or two people can go and get them to vote, or they can either post them. It’s already in the election process.” Meanwhile, polling will take place across the country on the 4th of July, which is just a week away.

The sitting member for the Moresby North- West electorate in the nation’s capital Mr. Lohia Boe Samuel, has pledged to continue his work and that of Pangu Pati in a five- year plan to properly address the issue with settlements and urban village development if he gets a second term in office after the 2022 National General Election. For the settlements, he has planned to continue with the urbanization program so that the settlements are integrated into the city and function as suburbs with proper water and sanitation and electricity supply for homes. “For that we need to work closely with the landowners of the settlement areas. Identify the landowners so that they will be compensated, so we can issue titles (Land titles) because without landowner compensation it will be very difficult. For the ward one villages, Mr. Samuel said Pangu Pati also has a modernization village plan for them for the next five years. In addition to this, the member said the matter of basic services to the suburbs in the electorate is also included in the five-year plan. Mr. Samuel is looking at improving basic service to the suburbs like fixing the water issues, the road issues and even National Housing Corporation (NHC) title issues for homes, which is an issue a good number of people in the suburbs are facing. “This is the thing we will do for the suburbs; we will fix your title problems that you are having with the NHC and the Lands Department, and we will bring basic services.” Samuel had met with the prime minister and reported to him all these matters and the plan was put together to address them, which is what Mr. Samuel is adamant to make sure it happens if re- elected for a full term in parliament. “So, this is the plan for settlements, this is our plan for the villages of Motu Koita and this is the plan for our suburbs of North- West. So, when we roll it out for the next five years, I am sure all the long suffering will be minimized,” said Mr. Samuel. The member said all these during the Pangu Pati rally held yesterday in Port Moresby where all Pangu Pati candidates running for the seats in the city and the Central province, attended. Pangu Pati parliamentary leader and Prime Minister, James Marape, was present at the rally as well to show his full support for his candidates running in this election.

The ballot papers among other election materials destined for the various Local Level Government (LLG) and ward council areas around the country, have started their journey to the various provinces and districts today with the assistance of the Australian Defense Force (ADF). Papua New Guinea (PNG) Electoral Commissioner Mr. Simon Sinai said the first province to get the election materials from the flight out this morning is Western province. Mr. Sinai said the PNG Electoral Commission is focusing on delivering all the election materials in just one week, but if there is a need to continue for another week, then the Commission will do so. “All the ballots have been sorted by our teams and all sensitive materials including the electoral roll, plastic seals, polybags for counting, labels for ballots boxes and the ballot papers,” said Mr. Sinai. The electoral commissioner also appealed to voters to take ownership of this election and go to the polls to mark a leader that would represent them in parliament, now that the PNGEC has started the distribution of the election materials. He said there is no need for any form of violence as the election is a democratic process every five years for people to choose a leader of their choice. Meanwhile, the man in charge of the ADF support for this election, Wing Commander Michael Rouhan, said they are here on the request of the PNG government and the extent of their involvement is to provide planning and logistics on air mobility to deliver the election materials to the provinces. This air mobility will be made possible with the Royal Australian Airforce (RAAF) aircrafts that are currently in country, the C-130 Hercules, and the smaller C- 27 Spartan air crafts. Wing Commander Rouhan added that there are 132 ADF personnel on ground that will be working with the PNG Defense Force transport the election materials. This is our job, and we are very happy to come and help out,” said the Wing Commander. There are two weeks left before the polling starts on the 04th of July and the transportation of the election materials early will ensure everything goes smoothly for voters and election officials come voting day.

The Opposition Leader and PNG Party Leader Belden Namah has proposed taking a better approach to providing free education and health service if he becomes the next Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea. Speaking at a recent PNG Party rally in Rigo in the Central province to show support for his party candidates, the Opposition Leader told the people that the best approach to this is to start from the bottom up, which is to improve the enabling infrastructures first. Namah said the provision of free education and free health service was initially a PNG Party policy when the party formed the coalition to install Peter O’Neill as Prime Minister. But this policy was rushed by the then prime minister as a means of securing support from the people come next election. When Namah was Deputy Prime Minister in the then O’Neill government, he proposed not to implement the policy yet until there are improvements made to the education and health sectors by way of building more schools, hospital, colleges and universities to enable more professionals in these sectors. He explained that by doing this, there should be no issues with spaces in schools and there will be good coverage of basic health services provided to the people. The Opposition Leader now wants to implement this PNG Party policy properly if he is re-elected to office and becomes prime minister after the 2022 National General Election. “When we go into power, we will still have free education and free basic health service, while we have that we will build more schools, more nursing colleges, more universities, more medical faculties,” Namah told the people. “We will not put the cart before the horse, we will do it right because PNG Party believes in doing the principal things right. We don’t have to be too complicated; we can come back to the basics.” Mr. Namah attended the PNG Party rally at the Kemabolo village on Tuesday this week in the Rigo District to show support for his candidates running under the PNG Party banner like the former Central Provincial Administrator Mr. Gei Guni Raga, who is running for the Central regional seat.

One candidate running for the Rigo open seat in the Central province is adamant to see a change in the District which he said has gone backwards post-independence as a result of poor management and a lack of proper leadership. That candidate is Mr. Dickson Guina, the former Secretary of the Department of Provincial and Local Government Affairs. A veteran himself of the public service, having served over thirty years in handing matters of provincial and district affairs, he told crowds at a recent PNG Party rally at Kemabolo village in Rigo that it is time now to vote in a leader that has a vast and intimate knowledge of how the system works, so to bring about the changes, developments and services to the district, which have been lacking in the past forty- six years. “We are lacking a good leader, a leader who has a dream, a passion for change, and a vision for the future generation. ”Guina told the crowd that if elected into parliament, he plans to turn things around starting off by transforming the district capital, Kwikila into a major commercial hub where it can bring in the much needed revenue for the district through business and agriculture. He also plans on further improving education among the vital service in the district, so to have a school of excellence that would generate well and highly educated young people from the district that would serve the district, the province and the country as a whole. Mr. Guina plans on doing all that by putting to good use the K10million District Support Improvement Project (DSIP) funds parked in the District Development Authority (DDA) office each year for developments and services for a district. With his wealth of experience in the public sector and dealing with local level government affairs of districts in the county including Rigo, Mr. Guina further assured the people that his is the right man for the job. “I want to make Rigo one of the model districts in the whole country, I want to make Kwikila an economic hub,” he told the people. “Be serious about voting this election, it’s about change. You vote a leader who can bring change.” Meanwhile Mr. Guina, who is running as an independent candidate, was invited to the PNG Party rally yesterday at Kembolo village by the Party Leader and Opposition Leader, Belden Namah. Mr. Guina was there amongst other party and independent candidates and PNG Party candidates running for the various seats in the Central province, including the regional seat. Although it was a PNG Party rally, all other candidates were given their opportunity to also talk to the crowd where Mr. Guina took the opportunity to address the people.