Electoral Commissioner Mr. Simon Sinai Thursday, 25th August 2022 declared William Powi as Governor for Southern Highlands Province at the Electoral Commission head office. Powi was declared after the electoral commissioner invoked Section 175, Subsection (1) under Part 16 of the Organic law [Return of Writs].
Under Section 175, it states (1) The Returning Officer shall, as soon as conveniently may be after the result of an election has been ascertained: (a) at the place of nomination or any other place appointed by the Returning Officer, publicly declare the result of the election and the name of the candidate elected; and (b) by endorsement under his hand certify on the writ the name of the candidate elected, and return the writ through the Electoral Commission to the Head of State who shall then forward all the writs to the Speaker of the Parliament.
The commissioner, using the power vested in his position, declared Powi under special conditions. Prior to the QC, Powi polled 98, 836 votes, that’s 8,323 votes clear of second-placed Peter Nupiri, who polled 90,513 votes. After polling, out 656 boxes distributed for Southern Highlands, only 653 were returned to Mendi for counting. 17 ballot boxes for the Kagua-Erave District were set aside by the EC as they were deemed to be hijacked and 636 ballot boxes were ready for counting Declared Governor Powi commended the electoral commission for stepping in and taking the lead in recognizing the issue and dealing with it.
“I commend the Electoral Commission for stepping in to teach us so the next time we will observe and conduct the elections correctly,” he said He also expressed great distress and appealed to all leaders in the SHP to have peace prevail, stating that the killing of people and the destruction of buildings is truly unacceptable. He added that whoever is aggrieved should take it to court. “In future elections, follow the law and let the election process be completed and honorably. Whether you win honorably or lose honorably. We don’t blame anybody or the EC, we blame ourselves because we wanted our way, we organized our people to do things unlawfully,” said a remorseful Powi.
He went on to say that they have already declared two Members in the two Districts in Morobe Province in this General election and now under special circumstances have done it again in SHP. This is the second consecutive time Mr. Powi has been declared under special conditions, the first was in the 2017 National General Elections. According to the Electoral Commissioner, Mr. Simon Sinai, this seems to be a new trend occurring nationwide.
They are now waiting on the Governor General to receive and cite the Writ.