CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — The turmoil surrounding Papua New Guinea’s chaotic elections worsened Wednesday after an air charter company stopped flying ballot boxes to and from regional areas claiming it had not been paid.
Pacific Helicopters said it grounded its 14 helicopters and three airplanes because the Electoral Commission owes the company about 1 million kina, or $268,000.
“What they owed us was getting just too much for the company to carry (on) any more,” chief pilot Ken Blain told the Associated Press by phone from his office in Goroka, 250 miles north of the capital Port Moresby.
Blain said the Department of Finance offered to guarantee payment if the company, which had been delivering and picking up ballot boxes to all polling stations outside of large towns, began flying again. He said aircraft would return to the skies as soon as the company received that assurance in writing.
The pilot, who has been flying across the country during the past 11 days of voting, described the election as a “complete stuff up.”
“There are still some provinces that haven’t had boxes flown out to them yet,” he said.
In some areas, polling stations have reportedly not opened, ballot boxes have not turned up or have disappeared, and electoral staff have gone on strike claiming they have not been paid.
