FAILED ELECTION

by JAMES MAKOP

Less than a week ago I posted an article regarding the deterioration of democracy as we know it in our country.
Now the results of the elections are slowly but surely bearing testimony to foul play, rigging and indicative of sinister motives at play.
Fellow citizens, we cannot ask for more evidence that what we have now.
1. The Rule of Law no longer applies to Peter O'Neill and his cronies.
2. People who are in positions to make a difference for the better have sold their souls for the proverbial 30 pieces of silver. That includes the Electoral Commissioner, the Police Commissioner, the election managers and returning officers and people down the rank and file.
3. Isaac Lupari had usurped the functions of the election advisory committee and illegally orchestrated the biggest denial of the right to choose elected representatives by citizens.
4. The economy is dysfunctional. Our foreign missions are being boarded up and shut down due non payment of lease.
It is a monumental embarrassment for PNG as a member of the international community but more so, the gravity of the danger we as a country face, increases by the day.
The silence of the heads of foreign missions is deafening. Why are they not making public statements regarding their dilemma? Does loyalty to the government of the day amounts to blind loyalty without question? What are they fearful of?
Why are the heads of unions quiet about the blatant abuse of public office we see happening on a regular basis? Surely your role to ensure a fair return to your members as employees by extension means you keep the government of the day in check, to ensure that at the end of the day, the country's well being and prosperity guarantees yours.
If this election returns the same people to public office, then we as citizens must emphatically demand a failed election.
I call upon all candidates who have challenged the current regime to stand up and be vocal. I call on all members of the work force to stand up and protest. I call on all students to take issue to this regime which now has the temerity to want to enslave you and your future. I call on all landowners, villagers, men, women and children from all walks of life to stand up and protest. Your heritage is now in serious question. I call on the likes of statesmen such as Sir Mekere Morauta, Sir Michael Somare, Sir Arnold Amet, and all intellectuals to unite and walk the talk. Let us not utter mere words which have no effect because the instruments of State which guarantees fair and just recourse have long been compromised.
We must unite and demand that this illegal election be deemed failed, that the Governor General deem so. In place the country be put under the care of a group of eminent persons and a new election be convened under the auspices of the United Nation.
We have allowed criminals to run the gauntlet long enough. It is time to stop them.