CANDIDATES contesting to be the next Governor for the National Capital District yesterday at around 12pm fronted up at the Boroko Police Station to follow up on a formal complaint laid by candidate Michael Kandiu.
Those that were part of the contingent of angered candidates are Andy Bawa, Lucielle Paru, Steven Kilage, Sylvia Pascoe and Michael Kandiu.
Kandiu was angered by the actions that took place, he said there was tampering during the counting process of the NCD Regional held at the Rita Flynn counting center.
“The incident happened on Tuesday when my scrutineers found out that I had scored 169 votes but on the electoral commissions tally sheet I had only 16, they had taken 153 votes and passed it on to other candidates.
“We found out that figures on the update posted by the Electoral Commission did not match our tally sheet,” Kandiu said
Kandiu expressed dismay that this was the second time he has been a victim of this it had happened in the 2017 election, also it was the same person who did it this time around.
“This is exactly the same thing that happened in 2017 and this is the same person who made this mistake with other officers also at the counting center.
“We want them to be arrested, the electoral commission has failed miserably in running a fair and free election,” Kandiu said
The police were prompt to gather the election team in question down at the Rita Flyn Counting center, they were taken in for questioning at the Boroko Police Station, among those that were taken in, was election manager for NCD Kila Ralai.
Inside PNG was able to speak with Ralai after he left the Boroko Police station and returned to the counting center, he said the matter was before the police and counting would continue.
Ralai did confirm that a complaint was made by Kandiu’s scrutineers at the counting center and steps were taken to rectify the discrepancies.
“When we heard the complaint, we realized that our electoral commission figures were different from the Scrutineers figures, we proceeded to open the boxes again to verify both figures again and we identified that there was an error on our tally on our, we had 16 when the actual ballot papers and figures on Michael Kandius tally for that particular ward “ward 4” was actually was 169,” Ralai confirmed.
Former NCD Metropolitan Superintendent now vying for the Governor’s seat Andy Bawa was very vocal about the lack of transparency witnessed at the counting center, he said they have written to the Electoral Commission about the matter.
“We want those involved to be sidelined including the election manager as well, that’s why we have written to the electoral commissioner and we have laid a formal complaint with the Metropolitan Superintendent of NCD, we just want a fair and free elections.
“First and foremost because it is an election related fraud case, we want that person responsible to be arrested and charged and after that we want people who are implicated in the allegations in the counting room replaced by new ones,” Bawa said.
Ralai when asked bout the demand for replacement of all counting officials he said steps were being taken to address the issue going forward.
“We will not have a new team but we will make some replacements, I have taken the task to not allow one of the Assistant Returning Officers who has been sidelined, he is not to enter the counting area with the three officers’ who were recorders working during the shift that night the incident had happened,’’ Ralai said
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