NEW DAWN ON BOUGAINVILLE

310515MOMIS EXTENDING LEAD
By Aloysius Laukai in Buka
The ABG President, DR. CHIEF JOHN MOMIS continues to increase his lead with every count.
The last six constituencies of Tsitalato,Taonita Tinputz, Haku ,Taonita Teop,and Teua all in the North Bougainville region have given all the Presidential candidates a total of 20,380 votes.
These 29,380 valid votes have been distributed according to the voters and as follows,

Candidate
16 John Lawrence Momis 10847
Sam Akoitai 2855
17 Ismael Toroama 1989
10 Nick F. Peniai 1281
12 Sam Kauona 1233
18 Reuben Siara 888
11 Justin Pokata Kira 486
13 Peter Nerau 173
15 Simon Dumarinu 157

Total Valid Votes 19909
Informal 471
Total Votes 20380
Counting is now in the Halia Constituency, then will go into Peit, Nissan and the Atolls.
The Atolls constituency will complete North Bougainville votes before the counters go into the Central and South Bougainville votes.
Meanwhile, scrutineers of constituency candidates that are yet to be counted and winners declared want the counters to complete constituency counts first before they can count the Presidential votes.
They are calling on the Electoral Commissioner to make clarification to them on this matter of concern.
Our attempts to talk to the Commissioner regarding this issue were unsuccessful.

Ends

310115 LATO HAS A NEW MEMBER
By Aloysius Laukai in Buka
The seat of LATO in the Bana district has a new member.
Although he was not yet officially declared, MR CHRISTOPHER KENA exceeded the absoulote majority mark of 1620 after the fifth exclusion early this morning.
MR KENA polled 1773 votes after the fifth exclusion.
Patrick Lesley came second scoring 1466 votes whilst CHRIS TWEN came 3rd with 1149 votes after the fifth exclusion.

The sitting member, WILLIAM LAVABUA was excluded at the 3rd exclusion.
ends

After Count Number 4 this morning.310515

16 John Lawrence Momis 6167 1245 7412
17 Ismael Toroama 1486 226 1712
14 Sam Akoitai 1132 499 1631
12 Sam Kauona 443 499 942
10 Nick F. Peniai 598 104 702
18 Reuben Siara 386 247 633
11 Justin Pokata Kira 226 74 300
13 Peter Nerau 76 29 105
15 Simon Dumarinu 93 11 104

Total Valid Votes 10607 2934 13541
Informal 261 58 319
Total Votes 10868 2992 13860

Counting has been suspended to one pm this afternoon.

Ends

30.05.15 Presidential counting Started last night
COUNTING of ballots for the ABG presidential seat started last night.
According to the Acting Bougainville Electoral Commissioner, Mr George Manu, all ballot boxes containing presidential ballots from Central and South Bougainville were airlifted to Buka under police escort in preparation of the counting.
Counting of presidential ballots are also conducted at the North Region count centre at Hutjena secondary school in Buka.
Meanwhile, Mr Manu said apart from the counting results which are being displayed on the visqueens at the three regional counting centres, progressive updates can also be accessed on the Office of the Bougainville Electoral Commissioner’s website, ‘obec.gov.pg’.
“The results on the website will show the results for all constituencies in the three regions plus the results for the presidential race. These results are progressive, preliminary and unofficial, and are subject to change. Final, official results will be available only with the Return of the Writs at the conclusion of the Scrutiny process,” said Mr Manu.
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300515 COMMISSIONER HAPPY WITH BEHAVIOR
By Winterford Toreas

The acting Bougainville Electoral Commissioner said he is pleased with the behavior of the people of Bougainville during this counting period.
“I am pleased by reports that the majority have been patient with the commencement of the counting in each of the Regions. In Central and South yesterday there were delays as there were additional ballot papers to be included in the count. These were flown from Buka by helicopter to quickly finalize the sorting and recommence counting,” said Mr George Manu.
“I thank all the counting officials, the scrutineers, the candidates and the public for their ongoing understanding of the counting process. I also thank the Returning Officers for doing everything they can to maintain the integrity of the count by pausing until the ballot papers could be included.
Mr Manu then encouraged the scrutineers and observers to attend the count centres, noting that only one scrutineer per candidate can be inside a count centre at any one time.
“Just as during polling, they are not to interfere with the process or the order of the counting. Their role is observe and if there are any concerns with counting officials not following the correct process, then they are able to discuss this with the Returning Officer for that constituency.
“Finally, I once again thank everyone for their participation in this process. My office will continue to provide updates on the 2015 ABG General Election Facebook page, and the ‘obec.gov.pg’ website.

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310515 MOMIS LEADS FROM COUNT ONE
By Aloysius Laukai in Buka

After First Preference Count Number 3 for the Presidential seat, sitting member and President, DR. JOHN MOMIS is leading the race for the President.

Ballot No Candidate Prev Tot Votes New Total
16 John Lawrence Momis 3691 2476 6167
17 Ismael Toroama 1105 381 1486
14 Sam Akoitai 894 238 1132
10 Nick F. Peniai 412 186 598
12 Sam Kauona 258 185 443
18 Reuben Siara 174 212 386
11 Justin Pokata Kira 191 35 226
15 Simon Dumarinu 30 63 93
13 Peter Nerau 52 24 76

Total Valid Votes 6807 3800 10607
Informal 186 75 261
Total Votes 6993 3875 10868

290515CURRENT CANDIDATES LEAD
BY JENNIFER NKUI

After count fifteen of the Torokina constituency seat, the current seating member for Torokina Steven Suako is now leading with six hundred and thirty-seven votes.
Since the start of the count at 9pm last night, the first preference count reported that Mr. Suako has been leading up until count fifteen.
Also for the same constituency, the current seating member representing the women of South Bougainville Rose Pihei is leading with eight hundred and eighty-six votes, while the current seating ex – combatant member Thomas Tari is leading with seven hundred and thirty-five votes.
From this count alone, the total number of ballot papers for the Torokina constituency seat was 2072, 29 informal votes and total allowable votes was 2101.
For the women’s seat, the total number of ballot papers were 2067, informal votes were reported to be 34 and total allowable votes was 2101.
As for the ex - combatants seat, the total number of ballot papers were 2083, 18 ballot papers reported to be informal with a total of 2101 as total allowable votes.
After recounting all the ballot papers to make sure the tally is correct, the counting officials proceeded with the eliminations process whereby Johnson Pama a candidate for the Torokina seat was eliminated with only 59 votes after count fifteen.

Ends

300515 OSIOCO IS BACK
by Aloysius Laukai in Arawa.

The former member for KOKODA in the ABG first house, RODNEY OSIOCO has been declared for the KOKODA seat which he lost to JOSEPH BAUSINA in the 2010 ABG election.

Sitting member JOSEPH BAUSINA did not stand to defend his KOKODA seat at this year's election.

MR. OSIOCO won after the 4th elimination with the final figure of 1322 whilst LAWRENCE HAKOUT with 988 votes.

Member OSIOCO was in Port Moresby when he was declared tonight.

Ends

300515 KOKODA NEAR COMPLETE
By Aloysius Laukai in Arawa tonight.

In Arawa, Central Bougainville the counting team are on the KOKODA constituency. On the figures candidate ISOA KAUONA is leading with 737votes on the Ex Combatants seat whilst Dake Jnr is coming second with 540 votes and Steven Topesi is running 3rd with 366 votes. For the women's seat Marcelline Kokiai is leading with 809 votes whilst Lynette Ona is second with 568 votes Elizabeth Niniku is next with 549 votes.On the Kokoda single seat after 3rd elimination former member for KOKODA RODNEY OSIOCO is leading with 836 votes whilst Lawrence Hakout with 520 votes. Counting is continuing.

Ends