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Papua New Guinea Agriculture Minister John Simon has lost his Maprik Open seat. The Peoples National Congress (PNC) Party candidate, Gabriel Kapris has been declared the Member-elect for the Maprik Open Seat in East Sepik Province following the conclusion of the elimination process. Gabriel Kapris Returning Officer Godfried Sokomia declared Mr. Kapris winner at 4:30 this afternoon, after exclusion 26. He said “I Godfried Sokomia, the Returning Officer for Maprik Open, as accorded by the Electoral Commissioner Mr. Simon Sinai on the 18th of May 2022, hereby, declare Gabriel Lenny Kapris, who received 16,657 votes. Absolute majority was 16,207+1.” NBC / PNG Today Next :  PNG Electoral Commission under pressure

The Sitting Member for Wapenamanda, Rimbink Pato and two other candidates are seeking interim orders from the National Court in Waigani to stop the counting of ballot boxes for the electorate in the province. Lawyer appearing on behalf of the plaintiffs, Nathan Pilamb made the application verbally as a matter of urgency. He submitted that word on the ground is that the Election Manager for Enga or the Returning Officer for Wapenamanda have brought the ballot boxes to the counting venue, in preparation for counting to begin this afternoon. Mr. Pilamb claims that this is despite a lawful directive from the Electoral Commissioner on July 19th, 2022 to transfer all the ballot boxes for Enga to Jiwaka Province, for scrutiny and counting, because of security reasons. Therefore, they are seeking interim injunctions to stop counting in the Province and for the Court to give effect to the Electoral Commissioner’s directive, to be complied with. Justice Joseph Yagi will make a ruling on this mat

If they stick with it, Volkswagen’s Polo supermini will hit its big 50th birthday in 2025, writes Brian Byrne. A lot of years, but the company’s Golf will pip it to that anniversary next year, in so doing just making it into the top 20 list of longest continuing car models. For comparison, the one in first place is the Chevrolet Suburban at 88 years old. So Polo isn’t going to make any nameplate records. But it does have a place in the history of many first time drivers, as a starter car that would get them going (for many, young fellows particularly, with the ambition to eventually get to the ultimate upgrade, a Golf GTI). In its sixth generation, since 2017, the Polo had grown up, and I remember thinking when I drove it then for review that it had reached the stage of being a viable rival for that same big brother Golf. The version had its mid-life upgrade just short of two years ago, and it’s probably appropriate that I take it up again to see how or if it is holding its place. In s