As the country is going into polling, many candidates and their supporters will be out to entice voters preying on the small people’s desperation.

But one woman has every reason to be concerned for whom to vote and what will become of her and women like herself once the election fever dies out and leaders get elected into Parliament.

Nancy Paul, an informal vendor from Erava in the Southern Highlands Province makes her living selling fried eggs in a small clear plastic container to earn a few toea, says that she has been voting ever since she came to Port Moresby in 2001.

“I do not know whether my vote will change my life because ever since the last election, both candidates I voted for the NCD regional and Moresby Northwest won the election but my life has not changed for the better.

“I continue to wake up every morning to sell fried eggs to make my living, and I believe that I speak on behalf of many other widows, mothers and girls doing informal market around the city corners,” Nancy said.

Nancy is a single mother of two teenage boys. She said she came to Port Moresby in search of her husband who had come to the city and remarried.

The husband fled back to the village after hearing that Nancy had arrived looking for him.

With no husband and no one to turn to for support, she then borrowed some money from a friend and started selling buttered scones and then moved on to selling fried eggs.

The little money she earns is not much but helps keep her going throughout the week.

She usually sells at Gordon market and the Waigani main shop fronts and on Friday and Saturday evenings till the early hours of the morning near night clubs and other entertainment amenities.

“We also get harassed and robbed by policemen while selling at night in front of the night clubs.

“Sometimes we get picked up, all our wares and night takings taken and then we are offloaded somewhere far away from where they had picked us up from,” Nancy said.

She said that there were many women with similar stories but she says that what they need is support and a proper market place for them to do their sales.

Despite the challenges and struggles of living in the city, she hopes that the people in the city and other parts of the country make the right decision and vote in good leaders.

END.