PRIME Minister James Marape has urged people not to vote along tribal alliances or through bribery and illegal practices.
“So if you are not happy with James Marape, then that’s fine, find new, clean and committed leaders like (Gary) Juffa and others instead of going back into the past,” he said.
Addressing the People’s Movement for Change dinner in Port Moresby on Saturday night, Marape said: “Election is a serious matter and don’t abuse your constitutional Section 50 rights and vote recklessly.
“Every voter in our country must know that you have power to change the course of this country with the voting powers you have during vote.
“If I am not, in your view, good to be prime minister, then you have good leaders like Juffa and others who share Parliament in my coalition who fight for the country’s interests ahead of self.
“If the recent past government delivered, then our present poor development indicators would be better.
“For instance, poor health facilities and systems allow for high infant and maternal mortalities, among many other health issues that are prevalent in our country.
“Our rural areas largely remained unconnected by roads, ports, power lines, health and educational infrastructure.
“All these backdrops were the status quo when we took office in June 2019, including an economy that was fragile and so broken down due to recklessness perpetuating from the office of the then-prime minister Peter O’Neill.
O’Neill yesterday said Marape still could not understand that people were suffering as “he plies on more loans to fund his unrealistic budgets, cost of goods are rising everyday as inflation continues to rise, interest rate increasing and unemployment continues to grow while there is zero new investments and low business confidence”.
“This is all happening while he (Marape) is partying with his partners and writing cheques for projects that do not exist to his government MPs while our people suffer,” O’Neill said.
Marape said: “The economic mess and mismanagement created then are being cleared in our reconstruction of our budgetary and economic principles over the last two years.”
Marape said when his Government took office in 2019, “we realised that more offline debts like the K1.1 billion Motukea Port, the K3 billion UBS loan, the over K4 billions of unpaid State contracts like the Supreme Court House and Enga Hospital and Highlands Highway counterpart fundings, to name a few, remained outstanding”.
“All these plus correct debts to GDP adjustments done under observation by IMF (International Monetery Fund), ADB (Asian Development Bank) and other creditable economic observers is establishing real debt at 40 per cent of GDP, instead of the 26 per cent O’Neill claimed last week in Parliament.
“I am happy to announce today that despite two hard years of 2020/2021, we have the highest foreign currency reserve in Central Bank than the low years from 2013 to 2018,” he said.
“To protect the country from abuse, we have passed the ICAC law and Whistle Blowers Act, are in the process of setting it up, and since then our perception ranking has dropped to 125 from what use to be above 150th place.
“We have also worked to get more from our resources, like our better agreements for Porgera and P’nyang – with above 50 per cent earnings for our country.”
Lae’s growing population a threat to polling: Police
By JIMMY KALEBE
POLICE in Lae have singled out unchecked population growth in the city over the last few years as a threat to polling during the General Election this year.
Metropolitan commander Chief Supt Chris Kunyanban said the increase of unplanned settlements would see state and provincial resources stretched to contain threats when polling started.
“Many of these people do not have their names on common roll, but they will force their way into polling areas and that will cause a nuisance,” he said.
He said police considered this a potential threat to a free, fair and safe election.
Kunyanban said most of the settlers in the city were illegally squatting on land.
“These illegal settlers will then become illegal voters during polling because their names are not on the common roll,” he said.
Kunyanban said he could not rule out the build-up of firearms in the Lae Open electorate, but had anticipated this and would be ready to deal with such situations.
“When people who have names on the common roll try to vote, these illegal settlers who are not on the common roll may cause problems for the district during polling. Police will not tolerate this,” he said.
Kunyaban said the issue had to be addressed by the authorities as problems would arise for the city, not just at the election, but in other areas as well.
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