Prime Minister (PM) James Marape has made an urgent appeal to the Papuan New Guinea Electoral Commission (PNGEC) to make sure the counting process is completed in time before the new deadline for the Return of Writs and the formation of a new government. Mr. Marape, in a press conference over the weekend, said with over 50 more seats yet to be declared, time is not on the PNGEC’s side. He said the Commission must not allow for any further delays to counting and declarations, allegedly caused by scrutineers and their candidates in most of the counting centers in the country. “I just want to appeal to the Electoral Commissioner to fix their capacity in that system (counting process). If a Returning Officer is indecisive replace him, get the security around and complete the counting process,” He added that any disputes that come up during the counting process, the avenue for that is in the courts to sort it out, after the election is completed. “Go to the election petition as an avenue to solve those disputes. These are avenues that our laws provide us right now, no one citizen must hold to ransom the process of an election of being completed,” said Marape. Marape said his coalition already has a good number of members elect to join his Pangu Pati to form a new government, but it is unfair that most of the candidates have not yet been declared, of which some of them may want to join his coalition to form the next government. Therefore, he urged the PNGEC to fast-track the counting process in all provinces to be completed by this week before the governor general gives out the invitation to the party with the highest number of candidates to form the new government. “So, by Friday when the section 63 invitation is to be issued, the calculation is based on a super majority of members elected, so there is no dispute or uncertainty in the minds of Papua New Guineans that this party has performed and delivered the number that is highest,” said Marape. Meanwhile, the new extended deadline for the Return of Writs is this Friday 05th of August, and the Electoral Commissioner Mr. Simon Sinai wants most of declarations done by Wednesday and Thursday.