O'Neill-Namah predicted to win election

[Palm]

Per the Mell Research &Marketing poll the free education platform is a vote-getter and may sweep O'Neill back in as PM and Namah as DPM. Sounds like a fairly certain poll:
http://www.postcourier.com.pg/20120622/news03.htm

[Palm]

Note that O'Neill is projected to win Due to his party likely carrying 30 seats and as the leader of the PNC party he would automatically be PM under PNG law. Nothing is certain, but it sounds as though things should go his way.

[Palm]

All campaigning comes to an end by midnight Friday in PNG. I think that's approx 8AM Eastern time US. According to this article everything is ready to roll:
"Trawen: We’re all set to go
Source: 
The National, Friday June 22nd, 2012
By SHIRLYN BELDEN
PAPUA New Guinea’s four million voters go to the polls for two weeks starting tomorrow, with Electoral Commissioner Andrew Trawen predicting a peaceful and successful general election.
As from midnight tonight, all campaigning activities would cease. It included the publication or broadcast of any material that may influence voters as they go to pick their leaders. This would continue until polling ends on July 6.
“It is required under the Organic Law on the national and local level government elections that campaigning must stop 24 hours before polling takes place, particularly political rallies and the loud hailers on moving vehicles,” Trawen said.
He warned that penalties would be imposed on candidates and campaign teams who refused to cease campaigning by midnight tonight.
Trawen said about 30,000 polling officials plus the election materials had already been sent to the various provinces.
“All the necessary materials such as ballot boxes, ballot papers, indelible ink, election forms, voting compartments and stationery are now in all the provinces,” he said.

Trawen is confident that the national election will be conducted successfully with security, logistics and funding all in place to ensure that.
 “I am confident that voters in this election will be able to cast their votes without fear, intimidation and undue influence,” he said.
“Voters have every right to expect a safe and secure environment to vote as security will be provided to ensure that the voting environment is conducive for all voters - women, men and people living with disabilities.”
First to go to the polling booths are voters in the new Hela province and Southern Highlands.
He called on the public to find out and remember their polling dates which can also be obtained on the Commission www.pngec.gov.pg website. 
The commission had negotiated with the Bank of Papua New Guinea which had allocated adequate funds for the use of provincial electoral offices nationwide. 
He said security forces were out in full force to deal with any form of threats and violence during polling, particularly in the highlands region where a few arrests and pre-polling raids had already been made.
There are international and domestic election observers already in the country to assess and report on the national election.
The teams are from the Commonwealth, Electoral Support Programme, AusAID, Transparency International PNG, diplomatic missions in PNG and other civil society groups. "
http://www.thenational.com.pg/?q=node/34637

Good luck to O'Neill and PNG.

[admin]

Thanks Palm

[Palm]

Hope for the best stp

[Palm]

Mell Research & Marketing has done several polls for the election and has done the polling for PNG before. They have done 3 polls for 2012 and each have shown O'Neill to be the winner as PM. In he 2007 election they were 85.5% correct in their projections. In the early polling O'Neill scored 100 as well as Polye as far as retaining their seats. Let's see how well they do this time.
"The predictions were made in an opinion poll conducted by Mell Research and Marketing Consultants Ltd which will be published later this week. According to Michael Mell, Managing Director of Mell Research and Marketing, the poll was conducted between October 2011 to January 2012 and covered all seats including the provincial seats. According to the results almost half of the current MPs were expected to lose their seats. Some of the noticeable MPs are Governors Tom Olga, Fr John Garia, Luther Wenge, Sir Arnold Amet, Simon Solo, Peter Humphries, Fedelis Semeso, John Luke Critin, Suckling Tamanabae and Havila Kavo. According to the poll results, Sir Michael Somare and son, Arthur Somare will both retain their respective seats. “This is the first part of three major opinion poll studies undertaken by our company on election 2012. The study only covered the popularity of sitting Members of Parliament. We have assessed their winning and losing margins in the coming elections,” Mell said. Mell said the sitting MPs that scored a rating of 70 percent and above were likely to retain their seats and Prime Minister O’Neill and Mr Polye have both scored 100 percent. He said the results of the opinion polls were educational as it would enrich all sitting MPs, intending candidates, government managers, statutory organisation managers, diplomatic missions, private sector managers, investors and the people on the elections. Mell said his company recorded a 85.5 percent accuracy rating for the 2007 national elections outcome and the same was expected from the current opinion polls."