Many of the 42 candidates who contested the recent by-election in the Moresby Northwest Open seat have raised a series of allegations of irregularities in the election process.

The allegations raised with the authorities, are mainly concerning the movement of the ballot papers and counting of the ballots cast in the different polling stations. The allegations, we hope, will be addressed through our due process of law in appropriate timing. Similar claims were raised by candidates in the by-election of the Goroka Open seat last year. The proper and lawful handling of the ballot papers is at the heart of a “free and fair” election in any democracy like ours in Papua New Guinea.

It is the lawfully cast ballot papers and their transparent and lawful procurement, delivery, retrieval, transportation, storage and counting of the cast ballots that must determine the kinds of leaders we send to our most important office – the National Parliament. There cannot be any other way. If you are a so-called national leader in Parliament in this term who has gone there via a carefully choreographed yet dubious manipulation of the handling and counting of the ballot papers, you should
be ashamed of yourself. And if you are someone in authority who has been behind the careful choreographing of a dubious manipulation of the election process over the years, you should also be ashamed for robbing the citizens of a democratic and fair representation in the National Parliament.

The fact that so many claims of foul play in the election process die before they see the light of day in the Court of Disputed Returns does not mean you are a squeaky clean mandated leader in the National Parliament chosen by the people. It suggests that, among other reasons and factors, the disputing candidates and their witnesses opted out of the cases under duress or by other considerations thus enabling some of you to be in Parliament for this and other terms of Parliament If you are such a leader now, you and your minders in the system chose yourself to enter Parliament through the proverbial backdoor. I know some of you are such leaders in Parliament at this time and you
should reconsider your approach to the election process and go out there and win the National Election in 2022 on merit by allowing the proper and lawful process to take place.

Coming back to the Moresby Northwest by election saga, the allegations of impropriety raised by the candidates are hair raising in some instances, as much as they are all too familiar in our elections over the years whether they be by-elections, supplementary elections or the national election proper. We hope what was claimed to have happened is not a dress rehearsal of what would happen in the Nation Election in 2022.

The National Election next year will succeed one of the worst and most problematic national election in PNG history in 2017 where both national and international observers all identified serious anomalies and called for immediate rectification before the next election (in 2022). Some of the beneficiaries of that forgettable national election are serving in this Parliament and we can hope they will do the right things by the electoral laws and our Constitution and allow the National Election in 2022 to be a much better managed one.

It is unacceptable in any democracy for the State through its instruments to deliver any election that falls sort of meeting all the basic and fundamental requirements stipulated in our election laws and the Constitution. For Papua New Guinea, the stakes are high for authorities to deliver an election that falls short of meeting all the basic and fundamental requirements of the process. The authorities responsible owe to the people, the Constitution and the goodwill of the Westminster Parliamentary democracy that we ascribe to and have made it our own. The claims made by the Moresby Northwest candidates are familiar tunes for the average ordinary citizen and a kid or teenager growing up and there can be a saturation point where people give up on appreciating and or participating in a national election and casting their votes.

The Moresby Northwest candidates are no slouches contesting in the by-election of arguably the most well-educated electorate in PNG given its location in a metropolitan province of National Capital District. The candidates are citizens of varying degrees of stature and accomplishment in life, with a number of them having been up there in the echelons of authority in government and other sectors in their former careers. Authorities under the ambit of the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ought to take seriously these claims, given their regularity in different elections over the years.

The current allegations of irregularity and similar claims in the past calls for the Electoral Commission of Papua New Guinea as the State’s custodian of the electoral process, to review the processes against the claims raised and ensure they are minimized or not repeated.

The ECPNG mist do everything in its powers to curtail the irregularities and ensure a “free and fair” election is delivered at all times from the 2022 National Election onwards. It is a must that our electoral process is safeguarded at all cost and at all times. We do not want our country to be governed by a platoon of rogue elements who enter our prestigious National Parliament through the backdoor, by defrauding the electoral process.

Our National Parliament is not for the rogue elements who enter through thel back-door.