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Road blocks hamper Bougainville election
Australian Associated Press - December 10, 2008
Bougainville's presidential by-election has seen a slow start with poor voter turn-out and heavily armed road blocks stopping some regions from voting.
Bougainville this week began choosing a new leader after former president Joseph Kabui died from a heart attack in June this year.
Voting in Papua New Guinea's autonomous region has seen less than expected numbers in the north and the capital Buka, while ongoing disputes in central and southern parts has meant not one vote has been cast.
Bougainville minister for local level government Jonathon Ngati said armed ex-soldiers and former commandos in his southern region had refused to end their road block.
"They want money and have refused to stop their road block," he said. "The situation is very tense and we are trying our best to negotiate and we will go back again this week."
The heavily armed men want $A75,000 from the government after one of their relatives died in a failed raid on a pyramid scheme operator. No vehicles would pass until their demands had been met, Ngati said.
Anther group in central Bougainville will not allow voting until the government pays for the late president Kabui's funeral costs.
Australian National University professor Anthony Regan, who works with the Bougainville government, said there were numerous reasons why there was a poor showing at the polls.
"There are 14 candidates and no ideological battles or inspiring campaigns. "It has not been a presidential style race between two candidates as we have seen in the past," he said.
Regan said previous elections usually brought in a little more than half of the 130,000 registered voters.
"Voting in by-elections usually gets half that turnout so this year's by-election follows that trend. It is a bad time of year, people have to return to where they are enrolled, which for some could mean days of travelling," he said.
A general election would be held in Bougainville in 18 months and this was when many would go to the polls, he said.
PNG's newspapers have also reported low voter turnouts for Bougainvillians in the capital Port Moresby and East New Britain province.
The island of Bougainville spent nearly a decade during the 1980s and 1990s fighting a civil war with PNG after central Bougainville landowners' shut down the massive Panguna copper mine.
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