Election and other news

Voting has finished and counting has commenced. It will be another week or so before the final outcomes are known. The army is guarding the counting centres and police have been brought in from other provinces to assist (local police are sent to other areas to help circumvent bribery and wantok*). This week there have been several arrests of people trying to steal ballot boxes and a couple of people have been killed, lots of guns and rifles have been confiscated. Some candidates and their supporters tried to stop the electoral commission from taking the ballot boxes to the counting centre but that has now been sorted.

In Hagen last Friday police recovered two stolen ballot boxes and an AK47 and an SLR (both rifles I believe) at a roadblock……..it’s all fun and games at election time!!

The next round of tribal fighting may break out when the results are announced in a week or so. I may be sent off to stay in the hotel once again, behind the barbed wire and the guard dogs.

I only have two weeks of my assignment to complete and the time has passed quickly. I feel that I’ve achieved quite a lot in the library. I’ve also spent a lot of time on my own and consequently I’ve read a lot of books, (22 at last count). I’ve also read the past 6 months of the weekend Australian cover to cover and I’m now so overwhelmed with different perspectives on current events that I don’t know how I’ll ever be able to express a strong opinion one way or the other on a political subject ever again. I hear many of you laughing as I say this!!!!

Thanks to those who have posted a comment back to me, it’s been great to get your responses. (If you want to leave a comment: At the end of this posting you will see the word comment. Click on this and it will take you to a box where you can type in a reply).

* Wantok – one who speaks the same language, one who is of the same tribe, friend or neighbour.