Panguna landowners want mine to re-open

BY ALOYSIUS LAUKAI

Chairman of the Panguna Landowners Association and candidate for Ioro seat, Chris Damana, said that his group wants Panguna to open to support the economy of Bougainville.

He says without Panguna it will take a long time for Bougainville to reach economic capability to run as a nation.

He also said that it would also take many years for another mine to start up leaving Panguna as the only immediate project that would save Bougainville.

Mr Damana was talking at a rally of 5,000 people organised in Arawa by the New Bougainville Party.

He is an independent candidate but supports John Momis, leader of the New Bougainville Party, who has nominated for election to be President of Bougainville and who also addressed the rally.

Meanwhile, the MP for Eivo Torau, Alphones Pemuko, has said he is not happy with the common roll update in Central Bougainville.

Mr Torau told New Dawn FM that the update team was not visiting villages, but getting names from files of churches and village registers.

He said these files do not have the true names of people who should be on the common roll.

He called on the Arawa administration to correct the figures and get proper names.