ELECTIONS IN HELA FAILED

by Francis Potape 

former MP for Komo Magarima and Governor

Today Hela mourns the death of true, fair and democratic elections whilst the perpetrators

celebrate the fruits of their evil labour.

Feelings of despair and hopelessness grip the Hela land far and wide. Even those in the celebration circles know deep down in them that what had happened in the elections will remain a huge scar in the Province’s history.

Based on the conduct of elections in Hela in 2022 and in many parts of the Highlands region I honestly believe that democratic processes of elections are under seized by power hungry people. Hela people have witnessed a massive election fraud conducted province-wide jointly by certain candidates, electoral commission agents, senior public servants, warlords and gunmen.

“Democratic elections are under threat not by ordinary citizens but by those holding key

positions of protecting them. If this trend continues PNG will be a scary place.”

Elections in Hela Province have failed. Those who have been declared winners are the

masterminds of the fail elections. Their winning numbers do not reflect the true voice of the people. They are simply champions of election fraud. They should be ashamed of themselves as they are not worthy to be amongst people’s representatives.

No one has won the elections in a true spirit of democratic processes in Hela. They only stole

from those who would be true winners. I do not feel that I have lost either. It was just like a

Coup dressed up as a National General Elections.

A total of 107 candidates contested for various seats in Hela Province. Many contested for the first time and few contested for the last time. We have all experienced a terrible lesson where people throughout the breath and the width of the Province were not given their freedoms to exercise their constitutional rights to vote for leaders of their choice.

What is very disappointing is that certain candidates, senior public servants, election officials, warlords and gunmen collaborated to hijack polling in many areas. Every hijacking was pre-planned and well-staged knowing that security forces would be inadequate or will be directed to be in certain locations only.

All the hijacked boxes were taken to the counting centre as clean boxes. The Presiding officers were all appeared to be paid off and locked away. The scrutiny of the ballot boxes at the counting centres were done without the presiding officers presenting the Returns of their boxes. According to PNGEC agents, this is a new counting procedure sanctioned by the PNGEC throughout PNG. I am not sure whether this is truly the case. This tactic was deployed to prevent some honest POs from disputing their boxes which were hijacked. This tactic was devised as a clever way of protecting hijacked boxes by senior officers of PNGEC at Tari.

I totally reject the outcomes of this election and will take the matter to Court. This election was far worse than the 2017 one. For reasons only known to the Chief Electoral Commissioner he has reappointed the same people to be in charge of the elections as Returning Officers (ROs) and Assistant ROs and the results are far worse. I urge those with solid evidences to come forward and stand with me. The wrong must be corrected to safe guard the future.

In Hela, it appears that elections were pre-planned and conducted for certain candidates to win. Election officials were heavily compromised to that plan. The score lines can clearly prove my words. In Hela it is not so easy for one candidate to collect all the votes whilst rest gets zero or a small number. In many places Philip Undialu got all the votes whilst rest of us got nothing. It is not because of his leadership but rather, hijacking.

For example, for Koroba-Kopiago Open, the Returning officer, refused to comply with Chief

Electoral Commissioner’s directive for 12 Kopiago boxes to be counted. This is because the RO knows that votes in those boxes are mainly for Petrus Thomas, a PNC Party candidate. Since the election officials are compromised he refuses to count them without any valid reasons for disputing the boxes. This is a classic revelation of how corrupt and compromised the election

officials in Hela are.

One of the biggest things experienced in this election was Raining of Money to buy votes.

Almost K40-K50,000 was spent in each council ward in the province. According to many sources, candidates of a certain party spent around K40 million in Hela in total on Bribery alone. Hela people have been fooled big time. They brought the money because our team has tightened up many things except the polling booths where we expected each one of you to be in charge.

Throughout my campaign I have told the people the key projects I will initiate to trigger

profound changes for Hela. What you have heard from me remains my dream for this Province. I know that my opponent has no solid plan for this Province. For him and others is about how much they can make for themselves whilst in power.

The future of Hela looks dark, yet again. Why! The warlords, gun men, election officials and the elected leaders are now partners in crime. These forces will generate negative growth and more harm to our people. Guns will grow and lawlessness will flood the land. More and more peace loving people will migrate out in search of peace, employment, education and health services for their families. Savages and gunmen will roam the land whilst elected leaders operate on phone calls from Port Moresby, Australia, Fiji and Philippines.

Hela must be thankful many Godly forces were play to stop criminal minded people from

bringing in security uniforms, dirty money and deadly weapons into Hela. God was fighting our fight in cases where we could not. Some of us did our very best to mark ballot boxes and ensure ballot papers put in each box were consistent with the 2017 common roll figures. It was us that let ourselves down when we did not stand up for fair polling to take place in our respective polling booths. Evil will flourish when a good man does nothing.

The window of opportunity for real change is being hijacked and now gone. Many greater

forces were play for me not to win because of party politics. I believe in peace, law and order,

and respect for fellow man. I believe that Hela needs to change and be one of the striving

centres in PNG. It is for these and many other reasons that I contested for Hela Governorship.

I want to thank Hon. Peter O’neil and his Peoples National Congress Party for endorsing me. As your Party candidate I represented your leadership and party well in this election period. Hela people believe in PNC Party’s free education and health policies. I believe that SHP and Hela must remain as twin sisters as per the words of our brother Anderson Agiru. It is along his

words that I ran under PNC Party banner.

I am pleased all PNC Party candidates did well in Hela Province. We stood for peace and unity, even when the notion of peace, dries up in our mind. We brought no bloodshed, no damage to infrastructure and no harm to anyone. We are people’s leaders, not boys hungry for power.

I also thank the acting PPC, Mr Robin Bore and his PNGDF counterparts Major Nick Mariap and Major Joshua Dorphar, and all their men and women in uniforms for their outstanding work. They have been friendly and helpful in many instances. Our good working relationships diffused many tensions which would have easily erupted into law and order problems. Areme Timbuni.

I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart to my supporters from Magarima, Komo-

Hulia, Tari-Pori and Koroba-Lake Kopiago Open Electorates. Many of you, mainly grassroots, stood tall with me. Many of you have contributed in cash and kind for leadership change for Hela Province. Your aspirations will be my strength.

Finally, let me say thank you to my election coordination team, scrutineers, and contributors. Together we did it. I urge you all to be strong and remain faithful to the course. I am not deterred by this theft of power through hijacking of democratic processes. We must increase in number, grow stronger in strength and wisdom, equally armed and more determined for the next round. God will bless each and every one of you and your families.

I Love You All. In our God Dadatagaliwape I rest our Case.

Francis Mulungu Potape CSM,BE(Hons,UoW)