Fires from the 24-hour spate of looting, rioting and mayhem in Papua New Guinea’s Port Moresby — the worst ever social unrest in the city — have all but subsided into skeletal remains of ash and buildings in National Capital District (NCD).

The smoke has cleared with six members of Parliament resigning from the Pangu Pati-led government, 10 people are dead in in Lae and NCD, 46 are wounded and hospitalised, and multiple people are suffering non-threatening injuries.

The government responded by declaring a State of Emergency in NCD and suspending Police Commissioner David Manning and secretaries of the Department of Finance Sam Penias, Treasury Andrew Oeka, Personnel Management Taies Sansan for 14 days.

The Post-Courier understands there was disagreement on the suspension and that the SOE was not the way forward. However, National Executive Council decided on going ahead with the SOE and suspension.

According to details released by Prime Minister James Marape, cabinet deliberated yesterdy afternoon and in a decision invoking Section 226 of the Constitution a a 14-day SOE was declared in Port Moresby only.

“14 days is the limit of the SOE, any longer period would require Parliament approval,” Marape said.

Meanwhile, according to the details released by Marape, Deputy Commissioner of Police-Special Operations Donald Yamasombi is now acting Police Commissioner and Controller of the country.

“Secretaries for Treasury, Finance and Personnel Management who are suspended for 14 days, their respective deputies are now acting.”

Prime Minister Marape reiterated his claim that riots in Port Moresby had been organised, but declined to say they were political, instead saying his government would only be removed on floor of Parliament.

He said that Chief Secretary and others would undertake an investigation of what happened in Port Moresby.

In other coverage of the crisis by the weekend edition of the Post-Courier, Claudia Tally reports:

Few shops open
Port Moresby was in confusion yesterday following the aftermath of the worst ever civil disorder as reality sets in leaving people with no shops open to buy food and essentials from.

While the PNG Defence Force and members of the police patrolled the city’s streets in an attempt to restore normalcy many genuine city residents were queued at the only three service stations open to refuel their vehicles in anticipation of the weekend.

A-Mart supermarket at Manu Auto Port was the only shop open within the vicinity of Taurama and Boroko suburbs where angry shoppers crowded around the shop begging for entry which was heavily guarded by PNG Defence Force soldiers.

On Wednesday, more than 20 shops were looted and 8 others burnt leaving the streets of Port Moresby covered in papers and plastics from the items that were looted by hundreds of people who took advantage of the city polices strike over their salaries.

A mother of four who wished to be anonymous was worried where she would buy food for her children over the next couple of weeks as all the shops, she knows have been either looted, burnt or are closed for security reasons.

“I went to a shop at Hanuabada and waited for three hours for it to open to buy my children’s food but unfortunately, it was not open so I came back,” she said.

‘How are we going to survive’
“If these issues are not resolved, how are we going to survive.

“These shops are our gardens. They are where we get our food from.”

Meanwhile, many tucker boxes and canteens in the city were open today and their prices have sky rocketed only hours after Wednesday’s wild rampage.

For example, at Konedobu a 1kg packet of rice now costs K10 (NZ $4.50) — double the price prior to the looting.

Following the disorder, many clinics were also closed to the public over safety concerns.

Miriam Zarriga, Gorethy Kenneth and Claudia Tally are PNG Post-Courier reporters. Republished with permission.

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As drivers and pedestrians continued on their daily business yesterday afternoon in Papua New Guinea’s capital city Port Moresby, a cry went out as someone yelled “fire”.

Located along Gabaka Street, Gordons, and within a compound that houses L and G Trading Limited Hardware Store and Bola Motors, a fire erupted from one of the warehouses.

Bystanders risked their lives to get to the location of the fire quickly.

The black smoke drew the eye of drivers as traffic crawled to a stop for people to catch a glimpse of the fire.

Oil trickled down onto the ground and the fire rapidly spread.

As the smoke continued, the fire trucks arrived and the firefighters not only battled to stop the blaze but also to stop the oil from spreading.

The fire was controlled by the firefighters with St John Ambulance arriving to provide first aid to anyone who had come in contact with the burning building and smoke.

Police were also at the scene providing traffic control.

Republished with permission.

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A senior Papua New Guinea police officer has called for mandatory drug tests because the National Capital District (NCD) and Central police command has been hard hit by “rogue” trade and consumption of methamphetamine among its ranks.

NCD/Central divisional commander Anthony Wagambie Jr said this while confirming that the dangerous drug known as meth had hit the streets of Port Moresby.

“This is one of my worst fears. The illegal synthetic drug is a very potent and addictive drug which has worrying effects on the well being of the user,” he said.

“I will not hide the fact that certain rogue elements within the constabulary, more specifically and rampant in the NCD/Central command, have been facilitating the trade and also have become consumers.

“The actions by a few rogue elements are tarnishing the [image of the] constabulary and its members.

“We have to be trusted by the community and to do that we have to win back that trust and we need to weed out the drug dealers and users within the constabulary.

“So far arrests have been made on certain individuals by the special investigation team from Police HQ and national drug and vice squad. My office has been supporting this operation by utilising NCD internal investigations unit.

“Our police legal team will have to create a policy around this.

New challenge
This was a new and emerging challenge faced by the constabulary and the country, Commander Wagambie said.

“I have mobilised the majority of members for us to crack down on drug addicted personnel who have become traders. This is very dangerous not only for themselves but for their families, the public and other police personnel.

“I have reached a consensus among my senior officers that we should have a mandatory testing of all personnel.

“I have made this known to our deputy commissioners and Commissioner of Police that we request for mandatory testing to be done.”

Miriam Zarriga is a PNG Post-Courier reporter. Republished with permission.

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The Commonwealth group that has been observing the Papua New Guinea national elections has called for an urgent review of the electoral process.

The leader, former Nauru president, Baron Waqa, said he was gravely concerned at the daily incidents of violence and tragic loss of life that were being reported.

The Commonwealth Observers said the highly centralised structure of the Electoral Commission had undermined the effective delivery of the election.

They said the 2022 rolls were missing a large number of names, which in some cases meant up to 50 percent of eligible voters were not on the rolls.

They were critical of the late and insufficient disbursement of funds, and that unpaid bills and allowances from previous elections, created a lack of trust in the commission.

The observers reported numerous allegations of bribery and treating involving candidates’ agents.

They said they had witnessed the distribution of money and food to voters during the polling period.

They said there were inadequate efforts to facilitate the inclusion and participation of women, youth, persons with disability, and other disadvantaged groups in the political and electoral process.

The Commonwealth wants to see:

• immediate reforms to strengthen voter registration;
• the creation of a collaborative and decentralised Electoral Commission that is properly funded by government; and
• a national network to support voter education and participation.

The Commonwealth group that has been observing the Papua New Guinea elections has called for an urgent review of the election process.https://t.co/HbB4xK1cig

— RNZ Pacific (@RNZPacific) July 25, 2022

Moresby governor shocked at election violence
Meanwhile, the Governor of Papua New Guinea’s National Capital District has condemned the violence in the middle of Port Moresby on Sunday afternoon, reports RNZ Pacific.

People presumed to be supporters of rival election candidates clashed at the Sir John Guise Stadium where votes from the national election were being counted.

The attackers were armed with machetes and other weapons.

There are unconfirmed reports that at least two people were wounded.

Governor Powes Parkop said he was shocked to see such “grotesque violence” in the country’s capital, and in broad daylight.

He said it was totally unacceptable and no justification could be made for such unacceptable behaviour.

Parkop said last week that he had asked for police to provide increased security in the election counting centres as he was concerned about the tension and the security risks, but he added that he was not aware that any such efforts had been made.

He said those who committed these “grotesque acts of violence must be arrested and charged and if their candidates are also involved in the planning of these act of violence they too must be arrested and charged.”

Parkop called on all candidates to restrain their supporters and show leadership.

Bishops demand government return to capital
The Catholic Bishops of Papua New Guinea called on caretaker Prime Minister James Marape and his cabinet to return to the city and sort out the problems from the unruly election.

In a statement, the bishops said the leaders needed to return to supervise the proper completion of the electoral process; to direct the work and the intervention of the security forces; and to guarantee the safety of individuals, public institutions, and businesses.

They said a severe deterioration of events in the National Capital District in the next few hours or days would deprive those currently holding positions of responsibility of any future credibility and trust for the welfare of the country and its citizens.

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

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Chaos. That is the one word for Papua New Guinea’s 2022 national general election.

Unfortunately, the election has descended to that level, and polling is slowly slipping out of the set timetables as chaotic scenes nationwide, manpower problems, logistics issues and unexpected postponements hit the schedule.

In the capital Port Moresby, voters were further shocked to learn that yesterday’s polling was suddenly pulled from under their feet at the 11th hour.

The big surprise shocked voters and businesses alike as the postponing of polling to Friday — is the second postponement to hit the nation’s capital.

Thousands of voters and candidates in Port Moresby returned home from polling stations around the city, angry, disappointed and even confused that they could not cast their votes while business are counting their losses.

The Post-Courier was told businesses were losing up to K1 million (NZ$455,000) for the one day stoppage and they will lose more on Friday when they close again to allow their employees to go to the polls.

“What’s happening? Money was allocated for this exercise. It looks like we have very incompetent people in leadership roles in the Electoral Commission.

‘Not doing their jobs’
“They aren’t doing their jobs,” said Wilma Kesi, a frustrated mother summing up the feeling among voters.

Polling in NCD (National Capital District) was initially planned to be held on Monday, July 4, together with the rest of the country except for the Highlands provinces but it was postponed to Wednesday, due to “logistic” problems.

Voters, among them hundreds of workers who took the day off from work to vote, woke up as early as 5am and went to the polling sites in anticipation for voting, only to be informed of the postponement after a long wait.

“This is not good. I left work just to come and vote and when they keep deferring, it’s not right because we can’t take too many days off work. My employer may not give me another day off to vote,” Collin Bill said.

The employers Bill is referring to include business houses in Port Moresby who shut down operations throughout the city to allow the workers time off to vote and they stand to lose millions of kina just to close operations for one day.

Major companies we spoke to agreed they stand to lose millions if kina for a day and this will rise when they close up again on Friday.

“We cannot deny our workers their right to vote. We have no choice but to close down operations again if the PNG Electoral Commission wants to conduct polling on Friday,” a senior manager of a leading retail company said.

Disruptive, costly
PNG Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Ian Tarutia said the deferral of polling was disruptive, costly and an inconvenience for workers, employers, business houses and candidates as well.

“This is inexcusable and unacceptable. Voters, candidates cannot be inconvenienced because of the incompetency of the electoral administrative process.

“It is already bad enough as it is that half our voting population will miss out because names are missing from the common roll. If the new date for voting in NCD is Friday, stick with Friday.

“No more changes,” Tarutia said.

Speaking on behalf of the candidates, NCD regional candidate Paun Nonggorr blasted the PNGEC for the continuous deferral of polling, adding that all candidates and the voters must not accept this “amateurish display by the constitutional office holder”.

“I am confused as to what is going on and why this is also casually happening. Can you enlighten me on the reasons why this is happening,” Nonggorr asked in a message to Electoral Commissioner Simon Sinai.

Not tolerated
He said the people should not tolerate this and he, as a candidate certainly could not tolerate this.

NCD Election Manager Kila Ralai explained at a press conference later in the day that interference from candidates and incomplete preparation by his office prompted the deferral of polling.

“We are not disorganised; we are trying our best to deliver elections for NCD. In the previous elections, they were chaotic, I just want to manage this election thoroughly, make sure we manage it properly.

“We just need to fix up our processes in order to deliver the elections,” Ralai said.

PNG Post-Courier reporters. Republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

“Powes! Powes! Powes!” The city of Port Moresby was ringing with chants of support for its governor for the past 15 years — Powes Parkop.

Hundreds of men, women and children from the settlements to the suburbs flocked at the weekend in support of the three-term politician who stands confident of defending his seat one more time.

The Independence Boulevard came alive with shades of orange — the colour of Parkop’s Social Democratic Party — more than a hundred buses, taxis and private vehicles crammed the Kone Tigers Oval while banners pledging the support of youth, women, settlements and suburbs danced.

Making his stance clear, Parkop said he was ready for another term in Parliament.

“From the bottom of my heart, I am proud of how far we have come and I promise you, the journey of transformation will continue to be outstanding for our people in the city and all our people in the entire length and breadth of our country,” he said.

“Today I am ready. I am energised. I am all set for the next five years to continue to do more and deliver more for our people, our city and our country. “

The rally last Saturday follows Parkop’s quiet nomination on Thursday, May 19, at the Sir John Guise stadium as the first candidate to nominate for the National Capital District (NCD) regional seat.

Gratitude to supporters
He also extended gratitude to the people of the city for their support of his leadership.

“I thank our people from the eastside, the westside and southside of our city, for your faith and belief in our leadership and journey together,” he declared.

The Social Democratic Party led by NCD Governor Powes Parkop announced 41 candidates for the 2022 National General Elections.#SocialDemocraticParty #NCDGovenor #PowesParkop #2022NGE #candidates #elections #PapuaNewGuinea #PNG #PNGNews #LoopPNGhttps://t.co/Co2yzIpnZd

— Loop PNG (@looppng) May 9, 2022

“I thank you for your steadfastness, your unwavering support and loyalty.

“It has been a great journey for us and for me as your Governor in the last 14 years,” said Parkop.

“We have delivered equally in the entire NCD, the East, West and South and we are poised to deliver more in the next 5 years to transform our capital city, the pride of our country.”

Deputy Governor and Motu-Koita chairman Dadi Toka Jr, sitting member for Moresby South Justin Tkatchenko, Moresby North-east hopefuls Pastor Moses Minape and Joe Tintin Saraga were also present at the rally.

John Rosso named Deputy PM
Meanwhile, Gorethy Kenneth reports that Prime Minister James Marape has announced Member for Lae and Minister for Lands John Rosso as the country’s Deputy Prime Minister going into the election and beyond.

He will be sworn in on Wednesday to succeed Sam Basil who died tragically in a car accident earlier this month.

Marape has also announced Hagen MP and SOE Minister William Duma will be acting Prime Minister while he is away attending the 37th Australia Papua New Guinea Business Forum and Trade Expo.

The PNG Electoral Commission estimates that up to 1000 candidates have already nominated to contest the 2022 National General Election.

It was unable to provide a definitive figure on the nominations due to lack of information and communications from the provinces.

Electoral Commissioner Simon Sinai said that a few hiccups were experienced in many provinces where information was not readily available and also due to communication difficulties.

Republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

A former election manager for Papua New Guinea’s National Capital District (NCD) who was charged with election fraud for corruptly receiving a large sum of money from a candidate during the 2017 election has been sentenced to seven years in prison by the National Court at Waigani.

National Court judge Justice Teresa Berrigan described the offence as “official corruption of the worst kind” and wants the sentence to serve as deterrent to potential offenders in this year’s election.

“As the country stands on the eve of elections, a severe penalty must be imposed as a clear warning to potential offenders, and to maintain public confidence in the electoral process,” Justice Berrigan said.

The former NCD election manager, Terence Hetinu, was initially arrested and charged on June 27, 2017, after a public complaint was lodged with police about Hetinu’s conduct that day.

He was reported to have carried with him in an electoral commission vehicle a substantial amount of money to be allegedly used for bribing polling officials to support a specific candidate.

When arrested, police found in his possession K184,300 (about NZ$80,000) and a contract agreement which stated that he would be rewarded with a security contract from the National Capital District Commission if he helped a candidate to win the Port Moresby regional seat.

Elections delayed by two weeks
RNZ Pacific reports that the weeks-long elections start with the writs now on May 12.

Electoral Commissioner Simon Sinai announced that the nominations would start that day, finishing on May 19.

Polling is due to start on July 9 and finish on the July 22 — allowing 14 days for polling. The writs are to be returned on July 29.

Republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

The People’s Party has made an unprecedented announcement to endorse four women candidates for all four National Capital District (NCD) seats in the Papua New Guinea national election this year.

Making the announcement at Parliament House, People’s Party founder and Enga Governor, Sir Peter Ipatas introduced the four candidates — Tania Bale (Nugent) for Moresby Northeast, Anna Kavana Bais for Moresby Northwest, Michelle Hau’ofa for Moresby South and Sylvia Pascoe for NCD regional.

The four women rallied behind Sir Peter as he made the revelation, where he said: “These are women with integrity — if people of this city decide to put a women team to lead them then I think they can make a big difference.

“People’s Party has a history and culture of integrity and we are supporting candidates that reflect this — both men and women. We believe these four candidates we are endorsing for the NCD seats hold the People’s Party values and principles.”

Party leader and Jiwaka Governor William Tongamp said: “People’s Party supports women leaders and believes the way to get more women into Parliament is to increase the number of women standing in seats around the country.

“That is why we are proud to support and endorse these four women and that is why People’s Party has a policy to legislate for political parties to amend their constitutions to have 50 percent of their endorsed candidates to be women.”

All four candidates have illustrious careers spanning from business, media, public service, charitable work and advocacy.

Bais took part in last year’s Moresby Northwest byelection under the same party, and said she was looking forward to assisting her sister candidates with her experiences.

She added that she looked forward to standing alongside her party of women candidates for the elections in NCD, and assisting each other in their campaign.

Sir Peter also challenged other political parties to “walk the talk” and endorse women candidates in this coming election.

Thierry Lepani is a PNG Post-Courier reporter. Republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Hundreds of settlers from the controversial Garden Hills settlement along Waigani Drive in Papua New Guinea’s National Capital District (NCD) have been thrown out of their homes after a court order enforced by police.

Their homes on church-owned land were razed by bulldozers yesterday.

Policemen deployed at the eviction site told news media that they were acting on a 30-day eviction notice that had been given to the settlers to move out, but they had stayed on.

“We were given an order from the NCD-Central Command to provide security while the authorities carried out the eviction exercise,” a senior officer at the eviction site said.

Mothers and children sat on the road with their belongings, watching helplessly as their homes for more than 30 years was torn down by machines while armed policemen stood guard.

A few people were sorry to see the settlers kicked out and their homes torn down, but most city residents have been complaining over many years about “general lawlessness” caused by the settlers.

‘Crime hotspot’
Police have identified the settlement as a “crime hotspot”, with NCD Governor Powes Parkop vowing to remove the settlers.

In the most recent law and order situation in the settlement, two people were killed in a drunken brawl that got out of hand, with the settlers running amok in the Garden Hills estate, threatening and attacking residents.

Residents in the estate have lived in fear of being attacked or mugged by youths.

According to deputy commander of NCD-Central Command, Laimo Asi, the land belongs to the Assembly of God (AoG) church.

Laimo said an eviction order was given 30 days ago to the settlers living there.

“But they did not move so the church got an eviction order and police just enforced the order,” he said.

“Units were sent in to enforce the eviction order; there was a bit of resistance in the morning, but the situation is now under control.

“Police will continue to patrol the area.”

The settlement is one of the biggest and most notorious in NCD.

Governor promised squatters
Attempts to get comments from Governor Parkop yesterday were not successful.

Governor Parkop had promised squatters at Garden Hills a year ago that they would be relocated to Fareya behind the air transport squadron (ATS) at Eight Mile.

On December 15, 2020, the Post-Courier published an article quoting Parkop regarding the future of the squatters following mounting pressure by residents who fall victim daily to petty crimes by youths from the settlement.

After 12 months, the squatters were finally evicted in a massive eviction carried out yesterday.

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

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Papua New Guinea’s biggest referral hospital has reached a crisis point as the covid-19 pandemic positivity rate surged drastically to 85 percent yesterday.

Port Moresby General Hospital chief executive officer Dr Paki Molumi in the National Capital District (NCD) has revealed that three children with covid-19 had died three days ago.

He also said yesterday that the hospital had recorded the highest deaths on arrival — 50 on Monday, 40 on Tuesday and 30 on Wednesday.

This was a sign that the hospital was reaching a crisis point with services teetering on collapse unless they are immediately given more support.

“PMGH now we have reached a crisis point. The first surge we were able to manage, the second surge we were able to manage but this third surge which is the delta variant is very aggressive, and we are reaching a very critical term,” he said.

“Aggressive means in the first surge we saw a lot of older people getting infected, and so with the second surge.

“This one, we are getting very young people — we lost three kids three days ago. This surge is not discriminating with anyone, its affecting everybody.”

Another dilemma
The hospital is also faced with another dilemma — this time over dead bodies that urgently require money and paper work to be completed to pave the way for their burial.

The deceased include a staggering 300-plus dead bodies with many of them covid-19 related cases and the hospital does not know where it will put the new bodies that are coming out from its covid-19 wards.

Dr Molumi also said 94 of their medical staff were infected with the virus, 52 medical and 42 nursing staff of the hospital had been infected by the virus. They must be given days off for home isolation, further reducing manpower.

“We are faced with a crisis where cobvid patients are presenting in large numbers with shortness of breath requiring manpower to assist,” he said.

“The few staff left are overworked and fatigued and we need to recruit more staff urgently.

“Our staff are facing unprecedented mental health challenges, as we witness death tolls never seen in the history of our hospital.”

“Our AusMat triage tent in front of the PMGH is full, emergency department is full, the isolation ward is full, the covid ward is full and all other beds in different sections, including the maternity wing allocated to covid are also full with covid-19 patients.

‘Dying before reaching hospital’
“People are dying without reaching the hospital. Our mortuary recorded 50 deaths on admission on Monday, 40 deaths on admission on Tuesday and 30 deaths on admission today, with more expected tonight.

“We have never recorded such a high number of deaths on admission.

“The morgue is filled, with bodies packed on top of one another. Right now, 300 plus bodies are at the morgue.

“Three more refrigerated containers have been installed to store dead bodies, but this is not enough. Some bodies were left outside for days because we just don’t have space in the morgue.

“A mass burial of 200 bodies is being planned this week to create more space. The bodies are both covid positive and unclaimed non-covid,” he said.

“So we as the city’s hospital serving over a million population in the national capital district, Central Province as well as parts of Gulf — we are reaching a crisis point.

Matt Cannon, chief executive of St John Ambulance, also said the service was in crisis.

“I think it’s fair to say that the ambulance service at this stage is in a crisis level,” he said.

“Challenges they need to cater for increasing number of patients… our ambulance service is also seeing a stretch!”

Gorethy Kenneth is a senior PNG Post-Courier journalist.

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National Capital District Governor Powes Parkop has lashed out at the Papua New Guinean Department of Lands and Physical Planning for failing to maintain and manage portions of land in urban centers for public use.

He said public space in NCD was “diminishing” and the department had not been helpful in retaining public land use over the years.

“I want to say that from the outset, public space in NCD is diminishing,” he said.

“The Department of Lands has not been helping us [NCDC] to manage public space properly, not just public recreational space but also spaces like drainage reserves, road reserves — a lot of other reserves are there for the benefit of the public,” Parkop said.

He said the continuous change to the Minister for Lands and Physical Planning and its Department Secretary over time by successive governments was also a contributing factor to a backlog of issues.

“The Department of Lands continues to override us, continues to ignore planning, zoning and the public interest. Not only on this occasion but many other occasions.

“I want to inform the general public that NCDC is here to ensure that all recreational parks will be maintained for the benefit of all the public.”

Jack Pidik Park controversy
Parkop raised his concern in relation to the controversy over the popular Jack Pidik Park that was formerly used as a recreational area.

“From the outset, we respect TST Group of Companies [responsible for a large development involving most of the part, we have no dispute and personal grudges with that but it is our responsibility as the government to protect the public and recreational space,” he said.

The governor claimed that the department had created the problem over time and it should be held accountable to “fix the problem”.

“The Jack Pidik Park was traded by the Minister for Lands or the government at that time without consulting NCDC.

“The national government made the decision and is the only one able to correct it,” he added.

Parkop also lashed out at the National Appeals Tribunal for overruling NCDC decisions on land issues.

“In the last two years, the company has appealed against our decision and the National Appeals Tribunal and sadly again, Department of Lands through the Appeal Tribunal overruled us (NCDC Physical Planning Board) and accepted the re-zoning for commercial purposes,” he said.

Meanwhile, Lands and Physical Planning Minister John Rosso said he was speaking to Governor Parkop and would address the land issues in NCD.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz