Counting for the Moresby North-West Electorate, had to be suspended Wednesday night, after an irate number of candidates fronted up at the PILAG gate in Waigani, to hand a supplementary petition to the MNW Returning Officer and demanding the PNG Electoral Commissioner address them and respond to the demands of the petition by 8am today. Candidate Mr. Isaac Lupari, speaking on behalf of the 12 candidates that were present last night, told the MNW Returning Officer Mr. Vincent Manukayasi that a copy of the petition had been sent to the PNG Electoral Commissioner, the Police Commissioner, NCD Metropolitan Superintendent, Venue Commander, State Solicitor and the NCD Election Manager. “We demand that there be a live stream and we are disappointed that we have been made to run around by the EC and I think there is double standards being practiced,” Lupari said, stating the first demand of the petition. “If there is live streaming in Hela, why can’t we have it in the Nation’s Capital of PNG. Technology is here and we even offered to pay for the cost. We don’t know what is happening in there so as the people don’t know what is happening in there.” The MNW Candidates also demanded an immediate cease to counting as of last night and for there to be a recheck of ballot papers from Ward 1 that was completed yesterday afternoon. “We want a recheck to check whether the ballot papers have the PO’s signature there, whether the number is right, whether it corresponds to the journals of the presiding officers. We want that to be done transparently in the presence of all of our POs who were literally on the ground overseeing everything there and in front of our scrutineers.” The petitioning candidates also demanded their presiding officers be present for verification as and when boxes come out. “Number three, we want a neutral person to be assigned to oversee the operation of the CCTV.” The candidates further called for all the current counting officials to be removed and for there to be a mix of persons from different ethnic groups, to be part of the counting team, instead of having all officials from one only ethnic group. “There are conflicts of interest here. We want the ARO to be totally removed and replace with new and neutral people. All four disputed boxes must be set aside and must never be counted. They are tempered with, we have witnesses there, our scrutineers have seen it and even the POs have seen it being tempered with.” Isaac Lupari said the Returning Officer has the ultimate authority to set aside and not count all four disputed ballot boxes. He said to even consider counting these disputed ballot boxes would deny the candidates and the people to fairness in the process of counting. “We have given the Electoral Commissioner until 8 am today, to respond to all of us. If he doesn’t respond, we will seek legal action and while we are waiting for a response, we want the counting to be suspended until we are satisfied with a response from the PNG Electoral Commissioner.”