The ruling People's National Congress party still leads the vote count in the country's lengthy general election.
Out of the 26 seats declared so far, the PNC has ten MPs. The next best placed party is the Pangu Pati with 5, while the National Alliance has four.
14 of the MPs-elect are incumbents returning, while five are former MPs returning to parliament.
Scrutineers apprehended in Enga Province, Papua New Guinea. Photo: Facebook
Meanwhile, police have arrested about three dozen scrutineers who were found to have destroyed election materials including ballot boxes and papers this morning at the Wabag Counting Centre in Enga.
The scrutineers say their grievances about election officers not including crtain ballot boxes in the vote count for Enga's Kandep Open seat were not properly addressed.
More MPs-elect are expected to be declared over the weekend, although in some provinces such as the National Capital District, multiple issues are stalling the process.
These issues include protests by candidates over alleged irregularities in the counting.
Scrutineers discovering what they described as suspicious looking ballot papers in Papua New Guinea's National Capital District. Photo: Facebook
Among them is an allegation that a box of ballot papers for the NCD regional seat was discovered by scrutineers to have been pre-marked with incumbent Governor Powes Parkop's name.
Mr Parkop had a big lead in the count, but the allegation is expected to be the subject of another petition by aggrieved candidates and could add more delays to the process.
