Caretaker PM Wins Seat in PNG Elections

Caretaker PM Wins Seat in PNG Elections

http://www.pmc.aut.ac.nz/pacific-media-watch/png-caretaker-pm-wins-seat-elections-8016

PORT MORESBY (Radio Australia / Pacific Media Watch): Papua New Guinea's caretaker Prime Minister Peter O'Neill has been declared the first winner in the country's national elections.

Papua New Guinea's caretaker Prime Minister Peter O'Neill has been declared the first winner in the country's national elections.

PNG correspondent Liam Fox says O'Neill has comfortably retained his seat of Ialibu Pangia in the Southern Highlands.

There are 111 seats in Papua New Guinea, but no other final results are yet available.

The elections, which should have finished this week, could go on for almost another two weeks.

Officials say there have been difficulties getting to remote parts of the country.

PNG's governor-general has signed documents extending voting in seven provinces.

Australia Network's Pacific correspondent Sean Dorney says the request for an extension came from Electoral Commissioner Andrew Trawen.

Eastern Highlands province, where voting should have ended on Thursday, will now not see a start to voting until next Wednesday.

Voting could extend to July 16 or 17.

Dorney said that in observing seven elections, he could not recall one lasting as long.

Trawen has blamed remoteness of electorates, logistics and bad weather for the delays.

But Dorney believes a massive security operation for the vote had an effect. As the security deployment moved into the highland areas, voting delays followed.

In terms of preventing unrest at the polls, "it seems to have been quite successful," Dorney said.

Dorney sees a lesser effect from claimed irregularities in the electoral roll.

There were now 900,000 more names on the roll than five years ago, which commissioner Trawen told reporters could not be right, but he was going to investigate later.

ENDS

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