‘Big Man’ Belden Namah struggles to hold Sepik seat

AAP

PAPUA NEW GUINEA'S STRONG WILLED deputy prime minister, Belden Namah, appears to be struggling to retain his seat in the national election as rival Sir Michael Somare is on track to return to parliament.

With just over 51% of the vote counted in the West Sepik electorate of Vanimo-Green, Mr Namah with 610 votes is trailing independent Willie Obow Inaru with 2,948 votes.

Mr Namah became deputy prime minister in August last year after helping orchestrate the parliamentary coup that toppled Sir Michael.

Last month, backed by his police and military bodyguards, Mr Namah stormed the supreme court and demanded the arrest of chief justice Sir Salamo Injia.

A firm nationalist, he has railed against what he has called a disastrous election, saying it was orchestrated by Australia and his one time political ally, prime minister Peter O'Neill.

Sir Michael, 76, and now seemingly recovered from the heart surgery that left him bedridden for eight months last year, is in a nail-biting race for the East Sepik seat he has held for 44 years.

With 35% of the vote counted, Sir Michael has 35,314 votes, while Pangu Pati rival Allan Bird is on 31,948.

Known as both the "father of the nation" and "the Grand Chief", Sir Michael has vowed to see O'Neill, Namah and members of their front bench jailed over the August coup.

He has said he will see a new government formed under his National Alliance banner but has not clarified if he will be the party's nomination for PM if it wins enough seats.

Mr O'Neill on Saturday became the first declared winner in the 2012 poll and vowed to form the next government.

In PNG, no party usually has enough to govern in its own right, so a long period of "horse-trading" begins, where MPs enter negotiations with independent MPs and smaller parties.

Comments

[Timi McMume]

He is definitely retain his saet. No doubt. Timi@ Goroka

[C Nengi]

It will be very interesting tonight when Vanimo Urban boxes are counted. He will certainly be struggling in Vanimo Urban. Unless his own people of Bewani commit their first votes to him, amongst their other candidates running against him, PNG could see Namah losing the Vanimo Green seat by the close of the weekend. All second preference votes from Candidates in Imonda, Amanab and Green River are circulated among their own candidates. Good luck Mr Nama

[Peter Kranz]

Today The National reports that Namah is coming third. He's also rather angry with Arthur and Sana Somare who he claims tried to hijack his plane at Wewak.
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Namah drops to third place

After count 16 at 5pm yesterday, he had polled 712 votes, relegating him from second to third place.Still leading the race is Willie Obow Inaru, an independent candidate from Green River with 2,966, followed by Traggy Waramin, also an independent candidate, on 1,442. Waramin is from Amanab.

The voting trend showed that voters from Green River and Amanab, the local level governments whose ballot boxes had been counted, had voted for their own men.
Next is James Fanio with 540 votes, Jerome Angawi 464, and female candidate Dorothy Tekwie with 19 votes.

[Tavurvur]

Still early days. Majority of ballot boxes counted thus far are from Green River. Once counting of Vanimo and Bewani LLG starts, we should see Namah's count increase. So too that of PNG Greens' leader Dorothy Tekwie.