Seem like the pre-election awareness campaign has paid off in the Southern Highlands province with no major election-related incidents resulting in violence.
This is all thanks to the hard working Royal Papua New Guinean Constabulary Policemen & Women working in the province who made it their initiative to educate the people of on the processes of the elections, election violence and its possible outcomes.
Provincial Police Commander for Southern Highlands Province, Chief Inspector Daniel Yangen has expressed great satisfaction with the way the elections have progressed so far.
“I have been doing a lot of awareness in the province and we are talking to the people about reality and life, how to select candidates and the consequences of their actions. The candidates have also been very helpful, although there are a few that had grievances among themselves but generally there has been nothing disturbing,” he said.
PPC Yangen remarked that the whole operation for the province has been one for advocating peace and harmony amongst the people.
Meanwhile, when asked about the incident this morning, the Chief Inspector addressed the issue, stating that it was not a major incident, just a misunderstanding between the supporters and candidates and blamed social media for instilling panic in the community.
“That was not a really big situation but due to social media, people are making it big news,” he said. The whole commotion started when the SHP regional candidates asked for a tally board in order for the public to see the figures reported in the counting room.
Then certain open candidates misunderstood the action taken by the regional candidates and demanded that the Returning Officer declare the leading candidate as the winner, causing widespread confusion and commotion for the public.
“The videos that went viral on social media, like many other places in the country were just a misinterpretation of what was really happening, Yangen said. So far so good, all is in order and everything has returned to normal.
PPC Yangen believes that with the way they are going, they should return their writs before the end of the deadline.