Winners

and losers

“I gave him a vehicle - a Suzuki worth K 14,000 (A 522,000) - a speed boat, and KlO,OOO (A$16,000) in cash and I’ve got records,” claimed defeated United Party Leader, Mr Paul Torato.

He was listing candidates he claimed as silent winners for the United Party.

Mr Torato and all the other six sitting United Party Members in the outgoing Parliament lost their seats.

Only one UP candidate won on the party ticket. That was Mr Billy Kepi in Okapa who then announced he was leaving the United Party to join Mr Paias Wingti’s

Pdm.

Mr Torato called a news conference to claim that in fact the party had won 10 seats and possibly 12 - all of the candidates having run as UP supported independents with the exception of Mr Kepi.

Asked to name the candi dates and what help he had given them, Mr Torato went into great detail.

He claimed he would be calling the chips in and that the United Party would re emerge holding the balance of power in the new Parlia ment When questioned on why he had not officially en dorsed the “secret” runners and had his photo on the

ballot papers next to their’s, 1 Mr Torato was disarmingly honest: “The reason we ran : these people as indepen dents was that we did not want to jeopardise their chances of winning.”

While Mr Torato and the United Party were big losers in the elections, Mr Michael Mel and the National Party could be the big winners.

The National Party may well be marching out of one government (Mr Wingti’s) and straight into another (Mr Somare’s).

The party’s newly elected leader is Mr Mel, who has made a fortune from coffee in the Highlands.

Mr Mell, aged 37, gradu ated in Law in the early 1970 s and immediately re turned to the Western High lands to start developing a coffee empire.

His Piplika Development Corporation now owns four coffee plantations including Gumanch - one of PNG’s prestige plantations.

After nine years as na tional president of the party he has entered Parliament, winning the seat of Anga limp-South Wahgi and de feating the deputy leader of Sir Julus Chan’s Peoples Progress Party.

Confirmed as parliament ary leader after the first caucus meeting, Mr Mel says he wants to be part of a government that is going to be stable, crack down on law and order and staunch corruption.