Micah upset over defeat

National

By MALUM NALU
DEFEATED Kavieng MP Ben Micah has refused to congratulate National Alliance party’s Ian Ling-Stuckey who was declared the victor yesterday, saying he plans to challenge the result in court.
Ling-Stuckey polled 9368 votes to beat Micah on 6713, and Martin Aini of the People’s National Congress Party.
“I am not congratulating him,” Micah told The National after the declaration.
“I am not going to congratulate him because my people are not happy with the way that the election has been run. Ian Ling-Stuckey won in questionable circumstances. I have no congratulatory message.
“My only message to Ian Ling-Stuckey is: See you in the Court of Disputed Returns.”
He said his loss “is part of the larger corruption of the electoral system”. Ling-Stuckey, the former New Ireland governor, told The National last night that he was happy with the win.
“The people of Kavieng simply wanted back what we provided (for them) in our previous government – honest leadership and competent management of public resources,” he said.
NA president Walter Schnaubelt, who had earlier won the Namatanai seat by beating Byron Chan, congratulated Ling-Stuckey. He said the NA was targeting the New Ireland governor’s seat too.
“We’re going now for the regional seat which I believe we’re also going to get. There’s a good possibility that National Alliance will do a clean sweep of New Ireland,” he said.
Schnaubelt also announced that NA would camp somewhere in the New Guinea Islands region with a view to forming the next government.