O'Neill: election was great; Transparency exaggerates

PRIME MINISTERIAL MEDIA RELEASE

CLAIMS BY TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL concerning the conduct of the 2012 national elections are an exaggeration - and disappointing, PNG prime minister Peter O'Neill has said.

Mr O’Neill said there had been problems with every national election since independence, and there were probably problems with pre-independence House of Assembly elections.

"The geography of Papua New Guinea makes service delivery and communications an enormous challenge day on day out. Staging national elections across the country is no different," Mr O'Neill said.

"I thought the overall conduct of the last election was significantly better than the 2007 election, and the 2002 election before that.

"When you have so many candidates, and regional as well as open electorates, the logistics of polling, and counting, are a challenge.

"But I believe that, with Australian government funded support, and the presence of international observers, as well as a free press, and a robust political party process, the election process produced a fair, and democratic, result," he said.

"But there is another important check and balance in the conduct of our elections. The National Court functions as an independent tribunal to hear disputes by unsuccessful candidates - and that process is currently underway," he said.

"We should have confidence in the judicial process to consider, andwhere necessary overturn, election results.

"The fact that the great majority of objections have been dismissed basically confirms that the elections were generally fairly conducted."

Mr O'Neill said he generally applauded and supported the work of Transparency International infighting and exposing corruption and abuse, but he was very disappointed that its claims regarding the conduct of the elections were an exaggeration.

Download Transparency International Election Observer Report

Comments

[Bernard Yegiora]

Interesting proposal Jerome.

[Jerome Aiake]

I do not agree with the PM's statement. The last election was the worst.

In Lae there were a lot of illegal practices like buying votes with money and kaikai. Trucks with money went around the city bribing people to get on board and go vote for them.

This was happening in broad daylight. If a survey was carried out in Lae everyone would agree with me. This happened on a large scale compared to previous elections.

Some officers in charge of voting and the counting of ballot papers modified the rules to suit their own interest.

That is why the National Electoral Commission is now the first respondent in a lot of the election related cases.

This was said due to some facts and figures gathered which are now in the Court of Dispute of Returns for the Morobe Open seat.

The above is just one of the many cases which clearly nullifies the PM's statment.

I suggest after all the election related cases are completed then the National Electoral Commision ask the court of disputed returns to file the election petitions.

By reading them it will, help the Commission to identify its weakness and strengths to help prepare for the next election.

I truly and strongly support Transparency International PNG for fighting and exposing corruption in Papua New Guinea.

[Joe Wasia]

Building from such information by the recognised international agents is sometimes better. Ignoring such information is bad.

Can we learn from the last election and make the next election a better one?

[Leia Tua]

Oh yer, that's what the prime minister thinks about the last election.

But to my observation the last election was worse compared to 2007, though they said it would be free, fair and safe.

But none of that did happen. Most people did not vote. Contesting canidates bought votes in order to convince people to vote for them.

All they should do is convince people by their ideas, dreams and vision to lead for the next five years.

And many cases are filling up the national court waiting for a final result.