The Papua New Guinea (PNG) Electoral Commissioner Mr. Simon Sinai has confirmed that the 2022 National General Election is nearing its full completion after 93% of electorates completed their counting with just a few seats remaining still going through with their exclusions.
Commissioner Sinai said after Friday the 12th of August, he returned 5 more writs to the Governor General, making it now 110 writs in total returned so far.
“On Tuesday 9th August the 11th Parliament of Papua New Guinea convened with 104 electoral writs received by the parliament,” said the Commissioner.
He said this followed the return of 84 writs to the Governor General Sir Bob Dadae on Friday 5th August and an additional 21 writs on Tuesday 9th August, just before the 11th Parliament set to elect the Speaker of Parliament and the prime minister.
He added that the 21 writs received included the writ from the North Bougainville open seat of which the member elect passed away while polling was still in progress. A by- election will be conducted for that seat.
“As the winning candidate sadly passed before the completion of polling, the Governor General forwarded 105 writs to the Speaker of the Parliament, 104 writs were received by the Parliament.”
These 104 writs received by Parliament excluded the one for North Bougainville of which the member elected passed away.
On Friday 12th August, the Commissioner then returned 5 more writs to the Governor General that brought the total up to the current 110. These 5 additional writs included the writs for the Moresby North- East and the Moresby North- West open seats, which were declared on that same day.
Meanwhile, Mr. Sinai said this now sees counting completed in 18 out of 22 provinces with 4 more to go, which he added are striving to complete their counting.
“The four electorates where counting continues are the provincial seats in Simbu, Southern Highlands, Madang and NCD.”
With regards to these electorates, he said he has gotten the approval to further extend the time for their writs to come in.
He added that for these ones that were unable to finish in time for him to return their writs to the Governor General, they still have time after he invoked Section 81(3) of the Electoral Law to further extend the date for the return of writs through National Gazette No. G642.