Parkop leads labourious vote count in PNG capital

2:13 pm on 20 July 2017

The incumbent governor of Papua New Guinea's National Capital District maintains a big lead as vote counting drags on in the national election.

Powes Parkop

Powes Parkop Photo: RNZ / Johnny Blades

As of count 242, Powes Parkop led the race with over 27-thousand votes after more than 102-thousand ballot papers were counted.

The former metropolitan police commander Andy Bawa was in second place with 14,400 votes.

Counting for the regional seat in Port Moresby was plagued by a series of delays since it began nearly two weeks ago.

As in numerous other electorates, the delays were mainly attributed to non-payment of allowances for counting officials as well as complaints about the process by candidates and their scrutineers.

Get the RNZ app

for ad-free news and current affairs