Yus LLG nominations in Morobe expect to complete on Sunday

Nominations have closed for the Kabwum Open by-election as well as all the other Local Level
Government [LLG] elections in Morobe Province, except for the Yus Local Level Government [LLG] in Kabwum District.

Situated within the rugged terrains of Morobe’s Sarawagat Range, the district had to be accessed the
quickest by air, which resulted in the Assistant Returning Officer [ARO] flown in on Wednesday this
week.

The Morobe Elections Manager, Simon Soheke told NBC Online that initially he had requested for three
days’ extension for Yus LLG, but the Electoral Commissioner granted 7 days’ extension, and his office has
allowed nominations only for Yus LLG to end tomorrow.

"As soon as we are satisfied that nominations are properly collected then we will close nominations this
Sunday," Soheke said.

Mr Soheke went on to explain that due to the LLG's delayed situation, the ARO had already started
collecting nominations at the Electoral Office in Lae, prior to flying over to collect nominations on the
ground.

"We have 17 candidates who have nominated so far, one of which is a woman from ward 13 of Yus LLG
as of Thursday," Mr Soheke said.

"My ARO on the ground is yet to give an updated report on how many more have joined on the 30th
and 31st, due to the poor mobile network coverage.”

Soheke said of the 37 LLGs, only the Lae Urban, Wantuat, Watut and Nabak LLGs have successfully
finalized and submitted their reports with others still coming in.