Counting for Markham Open Seat in the Morobe Province was disrupted on Saturday the 17th of July when supporters of a particular candidate, alleging foul play during counting, stormed the counting venue and damaged ballot boxes and papers.
Morobe Election Manager, Mr. Simon Soheke, said this candidate claimed that he was expecting more votes to be for him from a certain area which he said was his strong hold; however, while counting the votes were more for other candidates instead of him. This then led to him being suspicious and then he took matters into his own hands and then, followed by his supporters, burned all the ballot boxes and papers for Markham Open as well as for Regional.
The Provincial Election Manager said that prior to this, counting started on Tuesday, however a few issues popped up where he had to step in the next day to correct them so that counting could continue.
He said misreporting of the tallies and allegations of the Returning Officer being bribed by the candidates were the main issues raised at that time in which he had to step in and sort out quickly.
“As soon as these issues were sorted out, we then continued counting on Thursday up until just yesterday (Saturday 16th July) where the issue of the burning of ballot boxes escalated.”
However, Soheke gave assurance that nothing went wrong during the counting and that no foul play was done. He added that the officials were very transparent in their tasks that they were given, and the scrutineers were also very cooperative at the counting centers.
“Fortunately none of the officials were targeted and attacked except for the ballot boxes and papers. The record of votes that we have collected, are here with us, except for the actual ballot papers that we have to reconcile with, has all been destroyed.”
He also stated that the security personnel were present during the time to protect the ballot boxes and papers; however, they were outnumbered by the disgruntled supporters and couldn’t do anything to stop them.
Soheke further said that the Electoral Commissioner Mr. Simon Sinai, had been briefed this morning on the situation and he is now waiting on the Commissioners’ decision regarding the fate of the Markham Open counting.
Mr. Soheke is also currently working on a report of the incident and will send it through to the Commissioner by the end of the day.
“We will now leave it in the hands of the Electoral Commissioner who will take note of what happened and make a decision since we have two more weeks left before the Return of Writs.
“As per my report to the Commissioner, I will also include my recommendations as well as to how we can work together to fix this issue and come up with possible solutions. These recommendations will be sent to both the Electoral and the Police Commissioner.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Soheke as the Provincial Returning Officer as well, has taken control of counting for Markham Open Seat after the Returning Officer was stood down due to complaints from candidates on allegations of foul play.
Markham Open and Morobe Regional both have a total of thirty-seven candidates each contesting for both seats.