THE National Court has ordered a recount of all ballot papers for the 2013 Madang by election.
This follows a successful challenge by the third runner up of the by-election Peter Yama, who successfully convinced the court that there were serious errors and omissions by the Electoral Commission during the polling and counting period. The current MP of the electorate is Petroleum and Energy Minister Nixon Duban. Senior Supreme and National Court Judge, Justice Bernard Sakora upheld the petition by Mr Yama and ordered that a recount be conducted within two weeks and that the result be returned to the National Court by August 22. In his ruling, Justice Sakora outlined seven errors and omissions that the Electoral Commission and its agents committed resulting in the recount of all ballot papers. The seven errors and omissions are that: •There was lack of security during polling, transportation of ballot boxes and securing of ballot boxes at the Jomba police station; •The returning officer refused to include the 6116 marked ballot papers found at the grave yard when the petitioner and other candidates went to present their grievance to the returning officer; •There were unused ballot papers found in the assistant returning officers hired vehicle which were found by the petitioner with a polling officer near the Electoral Commission office, but he is no longer polling officer; •The returning officer and the assistant returning officer defied lawful instructions from Andrew Trawen, who is the Chief Electoral Commissioner, in his letter dated December 16, 2013, for them not to take part in the quality check and elimination process when 16 candidates signed a petition asking the Chief Electoral Commissioner regarding impropriety during the counting process; •Information found in form 66A and 66B were incomplete. In form 66A scrutineers did not sign to certify that the figures contained therein were correct before those figures were transferred in form 66b in order to commence the elimination process; •There was a re-polling at two wards , ward 4 and ward 21 at Ambenob local level government area but those figures were not made available to the court by the returning officer; and that •The declaration of Nixon Duban was done in haste and candidates and members of the public were not informed when the declaration was made. The ruling effectively means that the disputed 6116 ballot papers found at the grave yard will be included in the re-count which will change the position of many candidates in the election. Mr Duban had won the election with more than 18,000 votes while the runner up Brian Kramer came second with 7000 and the petitioner Peter Yama third with more than 5000 votes. The court decision yesterday would be Mr Yama’s third successful election petition victory since 2007. Post COurier Related News Comments are closed.
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