Papua New Guinea's Highlands region still has 31 seats to be declared, out of the 55 remaining in provinces around the country. Electoral Commissioner Patilias Gamato has urged his officials to speed up the counting process to complete everything by Friday — the new date for the return of writs to Government House. He gave the green light to election managers and returning officers to hire more counting officials and to work “around the clock”. He obtained the approval from Governor-General Sir Bob Dadae to extend the date for the return of writs by a week until Friday 28 July. Of the 31 seats remaining in the Highlands, eight are in Eastern Highlands, five in Chimbu, five in Enga, four in Jiwaka, five in Southern Highlands and four in Western Highlands. In Mamose, seven seats are yet to be declared in Madang. In East Sepik, West Sepik and Morobe, only their respective governor’s seats remain. The National Capital District, Gulf, Northern and Western have three seats left each. Central has two seats remaining, including the governor’s seat. Meanwhile, People’s Progress Party founder and New Ireland Governor-elect Sir Julius Chan says the party has not joined any of the three camps campaigning to form the government as it claims six seats in the national elections. He made the remarks amid speculation that he was being courted by the People’s National Congress. “I have not talked to Peter O’Neill at all,” he said. “We are not moving to any one camp but remaining strong in one place.” The PPP had four MPs to its name after the losses of Byron Chan in Namatanai and party leader Ben Micah in Kavieng. Despite that initial debacle, it came back with vengeance with wins by Emil Tamur in Kokopo, Nakikus Konga in East New Britain regional, Sir Julius and the latest being Kevin Isifu in Kavieng. Kainantu MP Johnson Tuke is also expected to retain his seat. “We have always been a strong, stable force and that is just the thing I want to do with the new members,” Sir Julius said. “I’m looking forward to forming a coalition with people who can form a stable, strong government.” Julius said. PACNEWS Comments are closed.
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