JAYAPURA: Acting Papua Governor Syamsul Arief Rivai has been urged to complete his main duty of preparing and conducting a gubernatorial election in the country’s easternmost province.
“He has failed to finish his main task,” Habel Rumbiak of the Kamasan Institute told reporters in Jayapura, Papua.
Syamsul Arief Rivai was sworn in as caretaker governor for Papua province last July at the same time as Tanri Lamo was sworn in as West Papua caretaker, with the main duty of preparing and conducting elections in their respective provinces.
Tanri Lamo completed his work with the swearing-in of Abraham O Atururi and Rahimin Katjong as governor and deputy governor of West Papua on Jan. 17.
The election in Papua has been postponed twice following the end of the term of office of governor Barnabas Suebu and deputy governor Alex Hesegem in June 2011.
Observers have blamed the slow progress on controversial Special Bylaw No 6/2011, which stipulates the criteria for indigenous Papuan candidates.