Kerebi DAVID

Parts of Papua New Guinea will experience average rainfalls despite the dry and cold conditions faced around the country, including East New Britain Province that is going through a dry spell with no rains in the province for the past three (3) months. Director National Weather Service Jimmy Gomoga said despite the few months of dry spell, there's good news for ENB - they will not experience a drought in the province with some improvements expected in the weather pattern in the coming months. “This improved situation will be felt in all the parts of the New Guinea Islands except for the southern part of Kavieng, New Ireland Province”, he said. “We used an instrument called the Different Vegetation Index to check the wetness and dryness of the soil, and the result showed average condition with soil still having some moisture, therefore there will be no drought condition in ENB and other province that were at risk of possible drought.” Papua New Guinea is in the middle of southern hemisphere winter and dry season has reached its peak over the country, however rainfall is expected because of the neutral condition. There will be a situation of three months average rainfall mostly in the Western Province, Gulf Province, Central Province and the interior parts of East Sepik, that’s from the National Weather Service Director Mr Jimmy Gomoga. Mr Gomoga also stated that the atmospheric wave is passing over the country thus bringing in cloudiness and rain over the country. “The rain falls that are currently happening now will continue for another 3 months, September, October and November and this is because the Ocean Condition is at a neutral condition and our weather pattern is not leaning towards the El- Nino or La-Nina conditions”, Mr Gomoga clarifies. With the country in the middle of dry season, we are also experiencing very cold nights and cold winds and this is because of the spring season down south. “Very strong winds were experienced during the month of July and will continue through this month of August but will slow down towards the end of August and September”. This is the transition of South East to North Westerly winds.

Port Moresby North East Open Counting update as of 8am 12th August, 2022. 1: John Kaupa 17 606 2: Andapanga Baliawe 17 143 3: Diane Unagi-Koiam 15 714 Absolute majority stands at 25 292. 3rd candidate Dianne Unagi-Koiam is the decider now. At this moment, counting officials for Day shift have not been allowed in for counting and Night shift counting officials to continue counting untill declaration is made for the seat. Counting officials just returned from 30 minutes break, but Exclusion #73 the final Exclusion can not proceed because the Returning Officer, and few AROs are not yet in the counting room. Hence the final exclusion for Diane Unagi Koiam is on hold at the moment.

The Central Provincial Government Central Dabaris will be going up against the Kimbe Cutters in Round 13 of the Digicel Cup challenge in Kimbe this weekend and the Dabari boys are looking for a back to back win. Coach Steve Gunua said they won Isou in their last game 24-6 and are looking forward for a back to back win with crossed fingers. Coach Gunua further stated that if they win the Kimbe Cutters this weekend, it will be their second back to back win. "The last back to back win was in round 9 and round 10 against the Vipers and the Wigmen but we lost round 11 to Tumbe's and the last round ,round 12 we won the Gulf Isou so we hoping for a win this weekend", said Coach Gunua Dabaris sits comfortably on the 6th spot of the Digicel Cup competition ladder. And Coach Gunua said this is the first time Dabaris had made it to the 6th place since the club entered the competition in 2019 and he is super proud of his boys.

Almost a year now and Kwikila Health Centre in the Central Province has being serving patients under a makeshift canvas tent. The health centre has gone under a major renovation late last year and since then all health services was done outside of the health centre, under a canvas tent. Sister-In-Charge, Anna Atop said the renovation was already completed, however the refurbished health center is yet to be opened for use. "I do not know what the delay is, it's probably with the Provincial Health Authority, but then we can't continue like this because it's affecting our service to the sick populace", said Sister Anna. She said the hold up in reopening the health centre has also affected their in-patient service. "We cannot admit very sick patients because there is no admission ward at this time", said Sister Anna. "We either send them home to care for themselves at home and come back for review or we refer them to Port Moresby General Hospital or neighbouring health centres depending on the nature of their sicknesses",she said. Sister Anna also claims that probably because of the delay in opening the health centre, there is a halt in receiving their medical supplies. "It's almost a year now and we have not received any new medical supplies and we are very low on all medical supplies including the basic drugs", stated Sister Anna. All these delays are very much affecting the sick people here from adults to the babies. Sister Anna also mentioned that the canvas tent they are operating under has weathered from the rain and sun. "During rainy season water is dripping down from the canvas holes and with strong wind and hot sun now the canvas is about to break apart into pieces." Sister Anna is now calling on the Provincial Health Authority to fast track processes and clear whatever the holdups are and open the health centre as soon as possible because the delays is causing many lives to suffer.

"The Law has been breached, conduct of polling and the whole process of the election was unlawful and we as candidates of the 3 seats of NCD have all the evidence." This is from one of the Moresby North West candidates Mr Issac Lupari during a recent media conference in the city this week. Mr Lupari said all candidates have agreed on 3 points to go by ; 1) All candidates have agreed to engage a lawyer to do a thorough check on the whole process of this election, and the lawyer will put a stop to all the counting process now because all the candidates have enough evidence to stop the counting. 2) All candidates to petition Electoral Commissioner to declare this a fail election and call for a new election. 3)They will provide all evidence to police to to do full investigation into this election because police has the power to conduct investigations. Mr Lupari added there are allegations of electoral officials taking in bribes and causing so much foul play from the polling place right through to the counting room and a full investigation is needed to be conducted. "Until then, we can rest assured that we have elected a good leader in the right process of election."

Polling in Simbu Province was quiet and smooth with no disturbance. Simbu Election Manager Mr Tom Sine said most ballot boxes from all the districts have being brought in for counting already. However, ballot box from the isolated part of Gumini District, and ballot boxes from Nomane and Karimui in the Sol-Nomane Karimui district have not being brought in yet due to bad weather. Mr Sine said if weather is good later on during the day then chopper will be sent to retrieve the ballot boxes so hopefully counting can start tomorrow. 

The 5-day polling period for the Autonomous Region of Bougainville will kick start tomorrow, Wednesday 06th July. AROB Election Manager Justine Pantumari said Autonomous Region was suppose to start their polling on Monday, however they had to postponed because it was a public holiday in the regions calendar. Monday was Remembrance Day for French Admiral and Explorer Louis-Antoine de Bougainville (1729-1811) who was the first Explorer to discover the island of Bougainville. Mr Pantumari said a thorough checklist of the materials were done and Returning Officers and Assisting Returning Officers were all dispatched with their materials to their respective regions, North, South and Central regions of Bougainville to prepare for polling. “The Autonomous Region of Bougainville will be going to the polls on Wednesday with 128 polling teams on the ground ready to get things rolling,’ said Mr Pantumari. “Polling will start around 8am and will finish at 6pm in the afternoon, this will be the same for Thursday and Friday,” said Mr Pantumari. Mr Pantumari clarifies that there won't be any polling on the weekend. “Monday 11th June they will return for the 4th day of polling and Tuesday 12th June will be the last day, whereby all polling should stop at midday," said Mr Pantumari. Picture courtesy: Its Only in Bougainville FB page 

"We are voting for road access into Mt Bosavi region," said Mr Andrew Awabi, who is the Chairman for Mt Bosavi Sustainable Agriculture Development Inc. For decades and generations there has never being a road access into the Mt Bosavi region and the people of Mt Bosavi have being cut off from the rest of the country. “Mt Bosavi lies between four (4) provinces, part of it towards the Western Province side, another part to the Gulf side, other side toward the Hela Province and the other part towards the Southern Highlands Province, however it is sad to see no road access from any of those provinces into Mt Bosavi,” said Mr Awabi. The people of Bosavi have being missing out on many development and service initiatives and they have being struggling for years, especially mothers and children. There is no proper education services, no proper health services and other government services have being absent in the area and the people are hoping that this election will be different and this time they will not miss out on any government services. “We are voting for road access into Mt Bosavi, we want to travel on a vehicle and our kids need to see what a vehicle looks like in reality, our mothers need to access better health services especially during labour,” said Mr Awabi. “We sometimes travel by MAF and get basic education and health supplies and other supplies, however this has stopped after our airstrip was shut down because of the lack of maintenance and for years now we are walking the jungles of Bosavi to get to the nearest province,” he stated. Mr Awabi mentioned that, to travel from Southern Highlands Province into Mt Bosavi, they catch bus down to Waro in Mendi and from there they walk through the jungle, cross the Kikori River and spend about a week walking and sleeping in the jungle before reaching Mt Bosavi. He also stated that to come into Mt Bosavi from Western Province is quit closer because you only spend up to 3 days to walk to reach Mt Bosavi. “We cannot continue to walk, we need road access so that basic services can reach us and we can send our kids to better schools and get better health services outside and most importantly find opportunities to be economically independent in terms of selling our produces,” Mr Awabi said. Mr Awabi also highlighted that, the people of Mt Bosavi are hopeful that come next general election, the Electoral Boundaries Commission can make Mt Bosavi an electorate of its own so that they can elect a leader from their own area who is fully aware of the situations faced by the people and can represent them on the floor of parliament. He also stated that they would prefer to come under Western Province as most of their customs, traditions and lifestyle is similar to Western Province and it’s much closer to Mt Bosavi. “For now we can only be hopeful that whoever is elected into parliament will make a road link from Mt Bosavi into the nearest province, because road access is our biggest need. If we have road access all other services can easily follow”, he said.

Election materials for Simbu province have already arrived in the province. “Ballot boxes and ballot papers have arrived last week in the province under heavy supervision and escort by police”, said Simbu Provincial Election Manager Mr Tom Sine. Mr Sine further stated that despite getting all election materials on the ground they still need few more ballot boxes and have requested for them and are hopeful some more ballot boxes will arrive in Simbu by next week. “By next week I will detail how many ballot boxes and ballot papers will be distributed to each districts,” he said. Trainings for the Returning Officers and Assistant Returning Officers of each electorate in Simbu Province have being completed, said Mr Sine. The trainings were done last week and the AROs and ROs are now ready for polling. Mr Sine added that preparations for polling are running smoothly with polling sites all marked and set and Simbu Province will go to the polls on the 15th of July.

Nine (9) mile cemetery outside Port Moresby city is about full to its capacity, but sadly relatives of the dead continue bring their loved ones in the hope of giving them a decent resting place in what is already an overcrowded cemetery. Financial difficulties and high costs involved in the repatriation of the dead back to their home provinces is one sad reality that determines the final resting place for their loved ones, but one candidates has raised his hand to support the struggling families in the city if given a chance to be their leader when the country goes to the polls. [caption id="attachment_22959" align="aligncenter" width="960"] NCD Regional candidate Ben Dangima (left) with Liberal Party leader John Pundari (right).[/caption] "Everyone is racing to grab a piece of the land at the famous 9 mile cemetery and very soon we will have nowhere else to bury the dead," said Ben Dangima , a Liberal Party Candidate currently vying for NCD Regional seat. Mr. Dangima said, for one to take a dead body back home is a very expensive exercise, and it is sad to see that we still have mass burials from time to time all because family members do not have the money to buy coffins and burial space. He said one of his policies is to help families repatriate dead bodies from Port Moresby back to their homes. “Not every family has the luxury to repatriate their dead relative back to their homes, but when I get into power we will put this policy in place and I will make it mandatory to help every family send their dead loved ones home,” said Mr. Dangima. [caption id="attachment_22961" align="aligncenter" width="578"] Candidate Ben Dangima speaking with the media[/caption] “I want us to do away with 'haus krai's' because it’s a very expensive exercise, and we cannot spend all our savings and start from scratch again.” Mr Dangima said when he becomes the NCD Governor, he will see to it that NCD will buy 22 ambulances for each provinces which will be stationed at every airport to transport the caskets from the airport home to the village. “When someone dies, you come to our NCD office show us the Corona papers, and we take it from there, from the morgue all the way to your home province and village all in a space  of one week,” said Mr Dangima. “NCD will pay for all the expenses including the airfares of a guardian to travel with the body, while the other expenses for the traditional haus krai and other obligations is yours to take care of but the dead body’s expenses are NCD’s to take care of.’’ He said the monies to meet the expenses will come out of the public purse from PSIP, DSIP and GST funds which belongs to the people. Mr Dangima reiterated that there is no more space left at the nine (9) mile cemetery and its time now to send bodies back home. "We want to develop the city and with more settlements popping up around the cemetery, area there is no more space to expand the cemetery.

The country’s economy has grown by K30 billion in the last three years, despite having to go through a pandemic, said Pangu Pati leader and Prime Minister James Marape. Speaking at a political rally in Port Moresby this week, PM Marape stated that the World Bank had announced that the country’s economy will hit K109 billion by the end of this year. Marape elaborated that despite being hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic over the last 3 and half hard years, his government used an economic tool “Deficit Budget Financing Strategy” to keep the country’s economy running. Marape said over the last eight (8) years of People's National Congress Party (PNC) led government, under Peter O’Neil when PNG LNG was flowing in 2014 and the people of this country was suppose to be okay, Peter grew the country's economy by K36 million with much more high outstanding loans to pay. “When I became the Prime Minister the country’s economy grew by K30 billion in just 3 years.” He said he is ready to challenge Peter O’Neil to a debate, to bring any 3 years of his time as Prime Minster and compare with his 3 years of developments and the status of the economy. “Mi no kanaka man mi ranim country, maski papa blong me no skul man, mi skul na kisim save na mi laik ranim country long honest way, na rausim kantri long han blong ol greedy man.” Marape further stressed that under the Pangu-led governments short tenure, they have built over 150 roads throughout the country, whilst Peter O’Neil was building roads in Port Moresby and Mt Hagen only over their eight years. He also highlighted that Pangu had to come in and inject K140 million to fund the Lae roads which the O’Neil government proposed but never funded it. “The last three and the half years were really hard years because our economy was really down, it got even worst when Covid hit the country however my government was able to pull the country’s economy through and stabilize the economy with the help of all the coalition partners.” He reiterated that Pangu will continue strive to improve every citizen’s lives and economy through the five (5) main Pangu policies. “Andanit long Pangu Save long Rot, mipla kamapim 5pla policies tasol na mipla bai deliverim long apim economy blong kantri”, said Marape. “Under the policy we want to provide better health service and hospitals, better education services and system, better economy and better infrastructures to connect everyone in the country so we become one country and one nation.”

The National Weather Service has warned that the risk of a possible drought is more likely to occur in some provinces as the dry season, which started in May, sets in until the month of September. "The country is well into the dry season which started in late May, and sadly some provinces are at risk of facing drought during this dry season,” says National Weather Services Director Mr Jimmy Gomoga. The Southern hemisphere winter sets over the country today 14th June, bringing the South Easterly winds to well established itself over the Papuan Region thus bringing Cold air from the south. The dry season has already established itself in late May and will last until September, and with the Southern Hemisphere winter setting over the country, we will be experiencing cooler nights and hot dry conditions during the day. “East and West Sepik will be experiencing drier conditions from June to August; Momase will experience dry conditions whilst New Guinea Islands Region and the rest of the country including Papuan Region will be experiencing neutral to wet condition,” said Mr Gomoga. Mr Gomoga also highlighted that during this dry season some provinces will be at risk of facing drought. “West Sepik Province, East New Britain Province, Central Province, Madang Province and Enga Province are the five provinces who are at risk of experiencing drought during this dry season.” Mr Gomoga is urging people in these 5 provinces to start thinking of storing up drinking water and turn to alternate crops for survival this month and next month in case the drought gets worse. “East New Britain is at a greater risk because they have being experiencing consistence dryness over a period of time and if they are hit by drought then the people will be facing the worst so they need to be prepared”, said Mr Gomoga. He also urges everyone to be very informed about the weather conditions for this month and next month so you can prepare yourself for the worst.