HOW SIMON SINAI A O'NEILL STOOGE RIGGED 2013 MADANG BY-ELECTION

 by JOE NARONG


"For the benefit of the public" a coin has two sides ;

As far as this case is concerned the petition filed by Peter Yama against Nixon Duban for the 2013 Madang Open By Election has gone as far as the 3 men bench Supreme Court and slip rule .

Nixon Duban scored 18,000 votes,  Bryan Kramer 7000 votes and Peter Yama 5000 votes. That’s the final 2013  By Election result.

Peter Yama filed an election petition on errors and omissions and requested a recount . His arguments were centered around 6000 papers found at his mother’s grave yard. 

The 2013 By Election was done without any issue of missing ballot boxes or ballot papers either during the counting or polling .

How the 6000 papers ended up at the cemetery remains a fraud matter to be fully investigated. On record the ballot papers were never part of the Madang Open By Election.

All candidates who contested the election are fully aware of this fraud . Since Madang Open 2013 By Election was completed without any missing ballot papers or ballot boxes the Form 66A and 66B were satisfactorily reconciled.

Peter Yama asked for the papers found at the cemetery which he found himself to be illegally included in the count.

These ballot papers were presumed to be unused ballot papers stored with the Electoral Commission office in Madang.

His arguments were tested in the courts before Justice Bernard Sakora. The Judge hearing the case ordered the “ found ballot papers”  to be included in the recount  which was shocking as the papers were not part of the 2013 By Election.

Justice Bernard Sakora made a ruling for the benefit of the petitioner Peter Yama. He ordered a recount and  asked for the illegal ballot papers to be counted too.

The judge was smart when he acknowledged the administrative powers of the Returning officer Simon Sinai. Electoral Commission is a constitutional office governed  by its own jurisdiction.

When Simon Sinai conducted the recount he did it exceptionally well. In the presence of police and new counting officials a recount sanctioned by the courts was done.

After 2013  By Election the container containing all ballot boxes were left stranded at Jomba YC and not moved to the police station.

This resulted in the container being opened and all ballot boxes tampered . When the recount was underway officials noted all inner tags and outer tags of several ballot boxes were broken already .

Bryan Kramer and Nixon Duban plus few other candidates had thousands of their votes removed.

Nixon Duban as the winner of 2013 By Election with 18,000 votes lost 8000 plus votes which was removed by those who broke open the container.

Bryan Kramer who was the runner up with 7000 votes also lost many votes with other candidates .

Bryan Kramer ended up being the third runner up although he came second with 7000 votes.

All the sealed ballot boxes for each candidate that were carefully counted were all broken by fraudsters who forced open the container.

Usually all containers containing ballot boxes are moved to the police station for safe keeping .

In this case the container was left unattended at Jomba YC after the counting . Electoral Manager and Electoral Commission in Madang are the only people who had the key and control over the container .

As to why it was not moved to the police station is a question that the Election Manager must explain.

However , with all these anomalies exposed a recount was conducted by Electoral Commission sanctioned by Justice Bernard Sakora.

The officials opening the container noticed a lot of discrepancies when they found ballot boxes tampered with and there were no inner tags, no outer tags and few with missing seals.

These were made known to the scrutineers who also witnessed the crime committed.

The Returning officer was under a court directive with a set timeframe and he counted regardless of the discrepancies.

In the process he was so concerned about the legitimacy of the entire ballot boxes whereby the numbers practically were were rigged. As the Returning Officer he was surprised that this exercise was like a set up .

Failing to comply with the court direction would be deemed as contemptuous so he counted under duress. The Returning officer of the recount knew well his grounds as per his advice from the lawyers . He was guided well in administering the already rigged counting .

In deciding on all honesty he made it very clear that those 6000 plus ballot papers found at the cemetery cannot be included in the recount .

He was advised that he had the powers of the Organic Law on the National and Local Level Government Elections to undertake such a decision.

171. RESERVATION OF DISPUTED BALLOT-PAPERS.

 (1) The officer conducting a re-count may, and at the request of a scrutineer shall, reserve any ballot-paper for the decision of the Electoral Commission.

(2) The Electoral Commission shall decide whether a ballot-paper reserved for its decision under this Section is to be allowed and admitted or disallowed and rejected.

(3) In the event of the validity of the election being disputed, the National Court may consider any ballot-papers which were reserved for the decision of the Electoral Commission, but shall not order a further re-count of the whole or part of the ballot-papers in connection with the election unless it is satisfied that the re-count is justified.

If you read the law carefully  it states that where there are disputed papers the Electoral Commission has the powers to accept or reject them.

These are administrative powers bestowed upon the Returning Officer Simon Sinai.

Although the courts ordered for the 6000 papers to be included in the recount  the discretion was always on the Returning officer to accept or reject.

When he refused to include in the recount Peter Yama tried to charge him for contempt .

Justice Bernard Sakora was irritated by the fact that Simon Sinai refused to include the 6000 ballot papers . He then directed strongly for the disputed ballot papers totaling 6000 plus to be included.

After the application filed by Peter Yama for the inclusion Simon Sinai counted the disputed papers but indicated that he will not include them as they never originated from any polling station .

It was clear that the Madang Public Cemetery was not a gazetted polling area and no polling was conducted in there on record.

On the conclusion of the recount sanctioned by the court Simon Sinai presented his recount brief to Justice Bernard Sakora. He never made any declaration as it was the courts business .

The good judge read the full account of the recount and accepted its findings and declared Nixon Duban as duly elected Member for Madang.

Justice Bernard Sakora understood well the Election law and ensured that the process was correct . He never threatened Simon Sinai for contempt or otherwise.

Peter Yama was not satisfied and appealed the decision to 3 men bench which again ruled against Peter Yama .

He then went for the last highest option for the court of law. He applied for slip rule and Peter Yama lost the final appeal .

The highest court in the country  once again ruled in favor of Nixon Duban.

Peter Yama was ordered to pay full the bill of cost to Nixon Duban and a report exposing  certain level of fraud were given to the police for further investigation.

So far the police have not acted on the report and it is now the business of Electoral Commission to defend their officer Simon Sinai if he has any issues with Peter Yama .