PACIFIC REGION ELECTION UPDATE: The Latest in a story ignored by the western press

TENSIONS MAR VOTING in BOUGAINVILLE

December 8, 2008 - 4:56PM

SPECIAL TO YOUR FREE PRESS Courtesy of THE AGE and AAP

Simmering tensions in Papua New Guinea's autonomous Bougainville region have stopped voters reaching polling stations to choose their new president.

Bougainvilleans were supposed go to the polls last Saturday after former leader Joseph Kabui died from a heart attack in June this year.

But security fears tied to issues dating back 20 years to the closure of the island's giant copper mine are causing concerns for election officials.

Mathias Pihei, Bougainville's acting electoral commissioner, said some polling had been completed in the region's north but in the capital Buka, and in central and south Bougainville not one ballot had been cast.

"Remember the people in Bougainville are still traumatised," he told AAP.

"Problems have not been resolved yet, everyone has been traumatised to a certain degree and we are holding an election when people are not reconciled.

"There was a lot of mud-slinging in the lead-up. We had to go on air (local radio) to appeal to the voters to give everyone an even playing field.

"People were raising issues with candidates that went back to the crisis, they are keeping it in their mind and they want answers.

"I am confident we will go on... we have people on the ground negotiating."

The island of Bougainville spent nearly a decade during the 1980s and the 1990s fighting a civil war with PNG after central Bougainville landowners shut down the massive Panguna mine.

Despite Australia and New Zealand brokering a peace agreement between the two warring parties in 2001, Bougainville remains plagued by heavy weapons, fractured infighting and tension from years of arrested development.

Armed roadblocks, unresolved financial disputes with the Bougainville government and factional tensions linked to the civil war have been cited as factors stalling this year's presidential race.

"In the south and central Bougainville we have some concerns from information on the security issues," Pihei said.

"People are demanding compensation money and have set up roadblocks.

"It can been seen as being opportunistic but we are being cautious before we leap."