Eight policemen attached to Mt Hagen police division have been identified as suspects in an election-related shooting that resulted in four people killed and several others wounded on 6 August 2022.

The shooting took place in Anglimp-South Waghi electorate in Jiwaka province and investigations were completed last week.

The alleged shooting caught international media and election observers criticism, triggering the investigation.

Crimes division director Chief Inspector Joel Simatab said that primary reports — including the autopsy, post-mortems, eye witness statements and other evidence — had been compiled.

He said the public must be aware that investigations had been completed.

International observers’ ‘lot of noise’
“At that time we had international observers in the country who made a lot of noise about the security forces involved in the killing,” he said.

“And we responded, sending our detectives — two from NCD [National Capital District] and four from the Highlands region — who carried out the investigations,” he said.

“We want to give assurance that we have done our independent investigations and [are] now working with the Coroner’s office, going through their process to serve [the suspects] to come and give their side of the story before arrests are made.”

It was alleged that youths from the area blocked off the highway over frustrations over how elections were being conducted, which resulted in police shooting at them.

Marjorie Finkeo is a PNG Post-Courier journalist. Republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Forty nine regional and international observers have arrived in Vanuatu to monitor the running of the country’s snap election tomorrow.

The election was triggered after the dissolution of the country’s Parliament on August 19 by President Nikenike Vurobaravu, and on the eve of a motion of no-confidence against the now caretaker prime minister Bob Loughman.

More than 300,000 people are expected to cast their vote in the snap election.

The Chairman of the Electoral Commission, Edward Kaltamat, has confirmed observers from Australia, China, Fiji, France, Kiribati, Melanesian Spearhead Group Secretariat, New Zealand, Pacific Islands Forum, United Kingdom and the United Nations are in the country.

Kaltamat said their presence will provide confidence to the voters on the transparency and credibility of the election.

The 49 observers have signed their code of conduct to guide them while they are in the field.

Kaltamat said some of them would stay in the capital to monitor the elections in Port Vila and the Efate constituency, and some would be deployed in the islands.

He said the observers will be briefed before being sent to the islands by aircraft.

This is not the first time that international observers have monitored an election in Vanuatu.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz