Two policemen have been killed in Papua New Guinea in the latest violence related to the country's lengthy and troubled election.
PNG Police Commissioner, Gary Baki. Photo: EMTV
Last week the Electoral Commission declared an election result in the final seat, almost two months after the new parliament started.
However, people upset with the victory of William Powi in the Southern Highlands regional seat have taken up arms again.
Police Commissioner Gary Baki said Saturday's attack, near the Southern capital Mendi, brought the number of policemen killed in election-related violence to four.
"The supporters of one of the regional candidates, after coming back from Hagen, decided to conduct a roadblock which prevented the police from driving through it, and as a result of that they killed those two police officers," he explained.
"They did it because they're dissatisfied with the declaration of William Powi being the Governor, and it's all inter-related, it's the way they see politics."
According to Mr Baki, the situation had not stabilised. But he said he didn't feel there was a need for a state of emergency, as mooted by the minister of police, Jelta Wong.
However, the Commissioner suggested the lingering violence would require a greater police presence in the region for the short term.
"Southern Highlands has been a target of a state of emergency being declared previously over there, and [now] it's the same issue," he said.
"We're going to go back again into Southern Highlands and continue to be deployed over there to ensure things don't go out of hand."
A declaration for an election result in the Southern Highlands regional seat took the longest of all PNG's electorates due to court disputes over ballot boxes and deadly violence between supporters of rival candidates.
These issues forced the vote count and candidate elimination process to be moved to Mt Hagen in neighbouring Western Highlands province. These changes placed extra strain on police and security forces tasked with transferring ballot boxes.
Papua New Guinea's town of Mendi is in a state of chaos after supporters of the main losing election candidate for the Southern Highlands regional seat went on a rampage and destroyed various offices. Photo: Melvin Levongo
Police are now struggling to contain unrest in Mendi, which is in a state of chaos after supporters of the main losing candidate for the Southern Highlands regional seat, Joseph Kobol, went on a rampage.
In addition to looting in the provincial capital, the premises of Air Niugini and Radio Southern Highlands received significant damge, and at least one office building was burnt down.
Violent election
Over 30 election-related deaths have been reported in the Highlands since polling began in June, although the real figure is probably higher.
Most of these deaths were registered in Enga province where ongoing fighting between supporters of the main rival candidates for the Kandep Open seat spiralled into guerilla warfare in the provincial capital Wabag.
Similarly, Southern Highlands has had several outbreaks of violence with high-powered weapons, as disputes over ballot boxes in the election for the regional seat held up the vote count, creating confusion and frustration.
In early August Mendi was brought to a standstill by fighting between Mr Powi's supporters and those of Joseph Kobol which reportedly left five people dead.
Election-related violence has also caused significant damage to public property and government infrastructure in Mendi, Wabag and the capital of Chimbu province, Kundiawa, where there was also deadly fighting.
Election-related violence in Kundiawa, 30 July 2017. Photo: Loop PNG
At around the same time, Australia's Foreign Minister Julie Bishop congratulated PNG on holding a "successful" election, despite widespread flaws in the electoral roll, as well as ballot irregularities and the various cases of unrest and deadly violence.
Gary Baki conceded it had been a particularly violent election. Police had planned extensively for it, he said, but the way the election was managed proved problematic.
"We had planned to deal with extreme situations but there has been a lot of inconsistency in the way some decisions have been made in terms of the electoral process," he said.
"That then tends to become law and order issues that we have to contain and deal with. As a result of that, we're stretching our resources to the limit."
The Commissioner, who said that the police officers killed were from Hela province, admitted that the cycle of election violence would most likely continue for a while.
"It will.. now that we're going into some [cases of petitions in] court of disputed returns being filed, we will just have to monitor the outcome of those," Mr Baki said.
