Thousands protest against proposed PNG election delay

Liam Fox, PNG correspondent

Last Updated: Tue, 10 Apr 2012 12:27:00 +1000

There's a big display of people power in Papua New Guinea against the government's move to defer the country's general elections.

Several thousand students from the University of Papua New Guinea are marching to Sir John Guise stadium in Port Moresby.

Thousands of other people are at the stadium to voice opposition to the vote in parliament last week to defer the elections for six months.

Prime Minister Peter O'Neill has since backed away from the move, saying the government wants voting to proceed in June but the issuing of writs, due at the end of the month, should be delayed by four weeks so electoral rolls can be updated.

The electoral commissioner, Andrew Trawen, has agreed to defer the issuing of writs by three weeks, but says voting will proceed in June as scheduled.

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