A RETURNING officer accused of illegally declaring Nick Kuman as the Gumine MP in the 2017 National Election has appeared in Waigani District Court on election fraud charges.
Freddie Yaun, 47, from Kama village, Karamui-Salt-Nomane electorate in Simbu Province, was charged with conspiring to defraud, forging fraudulent utterance, and false declaration.
Magistrate Peter Balos has adjourned the case to April 4th to allow Yaun’s lawyer to file his defense submission.
Yaun was accused of misleading then Deputy Electoral Commissioner Simon Sinai (now Electoral Commissioner) to accept the return of writs of the Gumine open seat at the Electoral Commission Headquarters in Port Moresby and declare Nick Kuman as the MP on July 29th, 2017.
However, another candidate, Lucas Dawa Dekena, was declared at Kundiawa counting center in Chimbu province on July 28th, 2017. Despite this, the Electoral Commission recognized Kuman as the duly elected Gumine MP and not Dekena. Kuman then served as the MP until he lost the seat to Dekena in the 2022 National Election.
The current Gumine MP, Dawa Lucas Dekena, has submitted a complaint to the National Fraud and Anti-Corruption Directorate (NFACD) to correct the electoral process that allegedly cheated his win in the 2017 National Election and his removal from the 10th National Parliament swearing-in ceremony. Dekena won the 2022 National Election, which he sees as sweet revenge for allegedly being cheated out of his 2017 win.
The dual declaration of Mr Dekena and Mr Nick Kuman for the 2017 National Election as Gumine MPs was a controversial event. Mr Dekena was declared as the MP in Kundiawa, Chimbu Province by the Returning Officer while Mr Kuman was declared the winner at the Electoral Commission Office Headquarters in Port Moresby by then Deputy Electoral Commissioner Simon Sinai.
Dekena believes that the 2017 national election decisions for the Gumine Open seat were controversial. He was declared in Kundiawa, while his rival (Nick Kuman) was declared in Port Moresby.
Both ended up in Parliament for the swearing ceremony. The court gave an order for the mix-up to be sorted out, and for one of them to get sworn in. Dekena took the matter to court but was unsuccessful. He plans to pursue the case again at the national court.
Dekena says that although he won the 2022 national election, he still wants to correct the electoral process for the Gumine Open seat to prevent cheating in future elections. He believes that correcting the process will ensure that future winning MPs will not be cheated out of their win in the same controversial process he experienced in 2017.
“Yes, I did win the 2022 national elections and I’m supposed to forget what had happened in the 2017 national election. But I have to dig up my case again to correct the electoral process. Because if I don’t correct it, some winning MP in the future will be cheated off his win in that same controversial process that I was cheated,” he said.
