VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape said his party has the numbers to form a coalition government, after a national poll plagued by violence, fraud allegations and large numbers of voters missing from the electoral roll.

PNG's general election, held every five years, is among the world's most challenging due in part to difficult terrain, extreme weather, poor transport infrastructure, and linguistic and cultural diversity.

Voting began on July 4 and ended on July 22, but counting was extended until Friday because of special circumstances including security issues, attacks on ballot boxes and logistical challenges, the electoral commission said.

International election observers reported problems ranging from interference in counting by scrutineers and double voting to large numbers of names missing from electoral rolls.

The Office of the PNG Electoral Commissioner said on Friday - the deadline for an election result under the extension - that it had returned writs for 83 electorates to the Governor General, although counting continued in another 35 electorates.

Marape said a day earlier that his Pangu Party was preparing to form a coalition government with 15 minor parties in parliament next Tuesday, after Pangu won 30 seats which gave it an "overwhelming mandate to form government".

Pangu, coalition party and independent seats totalled 67, he said.

Peter O'Neill, leader of the biggest opposition party, the People's National Congress, has disputed that Pangu can claim a mandate and applied to the Supreme Court to delay parliament's return next Tuesday.

He failed to win a court injunction on Friday that sought to delay the return of writs until all electorates had finished counting.

Electoral roll problems meant "millions of our people have not voted", he told reporters on Friday.

The Melanesian Spearhead Group, in an observer report, said the election's "many challenges" included unexplained delays of up to three days before counting started in some electorates, scrutineer interference, and failure to check voter identity documents.

In some cases, up to half of names of eligible voters were not on electoral rolls, a Commonwealth Observer Group said.

Police Commissioner David Manning said in a statement on Tuesday: "There are ongoing investigations into some candidates who are believed to have been inciting their supporters to fight with opponents, and arrests will be made."

Disruptions in a Southern Highlands province would not stop the counting of the vote, he warned.

He added there was potential for more confrontation as parliament sits and the court hears disputes over the vote as candidates alleged foul play.

Attempts to disrupt counting had led to arrests, Manning said in an earlier statement.

One fraud allegation in the Southern Highlands involved witness statements that 12,500 ballot papers were "hijacked during polling and stuffed in the ballot boxes" of a different electorate, he said.

Amid the voting, Manning said he had been sickened by election violence in Enga province, where people were killed, and schools, bridges, homes and livestock were destroyed.

Media have reported roughly 50 election-related deaths this year, down from 204 deaths documented in the 2017 vote. (Reuters)

China's foreign ministry said on Friday that it summoned Beijing-based Canadian diplomat Jim Nickel over Canada's participation in a statement issued by the foreign ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) nations.

This is the latest in a string of diplomatic complaints made by Beijing after the G7 called on China on Wednesday to resolve tension around the Taiwan Strait in a peaceful manner.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng summoned Nickel on Thursday and urged Canada to "immediately correct its mistakes" on the issue of Taiwan or "bear all consequences", according to the Chinese foreign ministry statement published on Friday. (Reuters)

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida intends to reshuffle his cabinet as early as Aug. 10, public broadcaster NHK said on Friday.

The reshuffle would come after his conservative coalition government increased its majority in the upper house of parliament in a July election. (Reuters)

Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi urged the Cambodian government to take steps to prevent cases of work fraud under the guise of investment.

In addition, the Foreign Minister also encouraged the acceleration of repatriation of Indonesian citizens who were victims of fraud, and the handling of similar cases that may still exist.

"The Minister of Foreign Affairs met with the Cambodian Minister of Home Affairs yesterday. What was conveyed was the acceleration of repatriation of Indonesian citizens who were victims of fraud, handling of similar cases that may still exist," explained the Director of Protection of Indonesian Citizens and Indonesian Legal Entities (PWNI and BHI) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Judha Nugraha in a weekly online press briefing, Friday (5/8/2022).

"And preventive measures," continued Judha.

Since the discovery of the case again in July 2022, the case that befell the Indonesian citizen has indeed become a special concern for the governments of the two countries.

In addition to the Minister of Home Affairs, Minister of Foreign Affairs Retno Marsudi has also specifically met with the Chief of the Cambodian Police, General Neth Savouen.

As of Friday, August 5, the number of Indonesian citizens who became victims reached 129 people.

Judha said, based on monitoring by his party and the National Police, there were still a number of social media accounts offering job vacancies at online fraud companies under the guise of investment in Cambodia.

"We have discussed with the National Police and we will also convey to the Ministry of Communication and Information so that these accounts can be taken down. Then we can take steps to enforce the law," said Judha. (RRI)