July 25 - Writs return to Trawen

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That 'letit' Gov't, led by PM O'Neill, with appointed Ministers and NEC will be taking shape EOM.

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PNG’s Electoral Commissioner says return writs by 25th of July
Posted at 22:57 on 17 July, 2012 UTC
Papua New Guinea’s Electoral Commissioner Andrew Trawen has announced that writs for the 111 National Parliament seats have to be returned to him by next Wednesday July 25.
Mr Trawen says this deadline allows him enough time to peruse and determine the number of seats aggregated by all parties in order to prepare his formal advice to the Governor General as to who should be invited to form government.
The Electoral Commission’s scheduled date for the formal return of writs to the Governor-General is July 27.
Following this, as required by law, the political party with the largest number of MPs is officially invited by the Governor General to form government.
Mr Trawen called on all winning candidates to take heed of the legal requirements relating to return of Writs and to complete the procedure on time, saying to date only one returning officer had rerun the writ for an electorate where counting has completed.

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First writ of elections returned, signals the begin of the end of elections in PNG
By Online Editor
12:51 pm GMT+12, 18/07/2012, Papua New Guinea
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The Returning Officer for the constituency of Tari Pori, Willie Kara was in Port Moresby Tuesday to deliver the writ of election to the Chief Electoral Commissioner, Andrew Trawen.

He was accompanied by the Member-elect, James Marape.

Other writs of declared seats are expected to be returned before Friday.

Trawen said he expects all writs to be returned by next Wednesday to allow his office to finalise the results and determine which party wins the elections.

He will then advise the Governor General to invite that political party to form the next government.

Member-elect for Bulolo, Sam Basil says he will push for Papua New Guinea to vote for a Prime Minister in 2017.

Basil, the winner of the Open Seat in Morobe said he does not like the idea that the Prime Minister is held to ransom by 55 a member majority on the floor of parliament.

“We have to make sure that the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea is voted by the 7-million people of this country so that he is held accountable to people who elected him, said Basil.

Already, 20 of the 111 seats have been declared. The People’s National Congress leads with five seats, followed by People’s Progress Party with four, the Triumph Heritage Party and National Alliance with three each and one each to the New Generation Party, Melanesia Liberal Party, PNG Party, United Resource Party and the People’s United Party.

In Kairuku Hiri, the assistant Returning Officer was stabbed by unknown assailants on his way home in Port Moresby.

This comes immediately after threats made via mobile phone were issued to the district's Returning Officer and the Central Provincial Election Steering Committee Chairman on Monday.

Families of the two senior Electoral Commission officers have since been moved to safe houses.

Police have been alerted and are investigating both incidences.