Papua New Guinea's suspended opposition leader, Don Polye, says he believes his removal from parliament has been politically motivated.
Don Polye says he belives the government is behind his suspension from parliament. Photo: Papua New Guinea opposition
Mr Polye was stood down last week after the National Court ruled, during an election petition hearing, that several ballot boxes in his Kandep seat needed to be recounted.
Mr Polye said the boxes involved only contained 3,294 votes, yet he won the poll over the successful petitioner, Alfred Manaseh, by more than 12 thousand votes.
He also said it is four years since the election and the writs for the next poll will be issued in about 11 months.
He accused election officials of bias and claims he has been taken out of the picture because he has been a thorn in the side of the government.
"What I have been doing is making sure that we resist any form of corruption, abuse of public funds etc, etc, and abuse of the rule of law, compromise of institutions. I have been doing that and many people in authority, including ministers, have been affected," Mr Polye said.
Last week, two electoral officials in Kandep were referred to the police for investigation for what the Electoral Commissioner said were highly questionable practices.
