Dede Sophie

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...

 Papua New Guinea Prime Minister  James Marape says the allocation of four ministries to the agriculture sector is a complete paradigm shift to get agriculture moving again. The Marape Government’s focus on ‘Taking Back PNG’ is deeply embedded in the agriculture sector – which is the backbone of Papua New Guinea to drive the country and economy. The Prime Minister said it was no secret that agriculture had declined since Independence in 1975, and allocation of the four ministries was to rekindle the sector, for it to be a major income-generator for PNG. PM Marape said this when explaining the rationale for his allocating four ministries to the agriculture sector. “Albert Einstein once said, ‘insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result’, which is exactly what has happened to the PNG agriculture sector since 1975,” he said. • Goroka MP Hon. Aiye Tambua (Pangu Pati) is the Agriculture Minister responsible for administration of the department ...