Madang Electoral manager dismisses rumors of deferred polling for LLG

The Madang Electoral office has dismissed widespread rumors in the province of another deferral of polling for the Local Level Government election.

Manager Sponsa Navi said polling for Madang Province will commence on Monday, 27 October.

He described the province- wide rumors of the deferral as cooked- up lies, clarifying that polling will start next Monday and not on Saturday 25.

This, he added is to give time to churchgoers to go to church on Saturday and Sunday.

Mr Navi said, "Polling in all the six districts will start on October 27 and not next month as speculated by some people both on social media and by word of mouth. The Electoral Commissioner has not made any changes, and we will conduct polling starting on Monday, the 27.

"Polling will run for two weeks, but it depends on each LLG if they have set themselves for five or seven days, but polling must end by November 8. For those that will need extra days, we can ask for a few days' extension."

The election of Ward councilors and LLG presidents will be conducted concurrently.

Mr Navi further stated that the counting of votes for the ward councilors will be conducted straight after polling and in their respective wards.

For the presidents' election, counting will be held at the respective LLG council chambers or the district headquarters, depending on the decisions of the Assistant Returning Officers.

For the three newly- created LLGs in the province, Mr Navi said counting will also be held in their respective chambers. North and South Karkar LLGs have arranged for their counting to be held in one place whilst for Wanuma LLG, counting will be at its newly- constructed chamber.

Meanwhile, polling materials have been dispatched to almost all the LLGs, except for Kovon and Simbai in the Middle Ramu District.

Their materials are still in town and will be dispatched in the coming days in time for polling to begin next Monday.

There are about 400 polling teams in the province.