Bougainville election: Prominent female candidate Theonila Roka Matbob loses seat
Source: RNZ
Theonila Roka Matbob, one of the most prominent female candidates in the Bougainville election, has lost her seat.
Matbob, the member for Ioro in Central Bougainville - a region encompassing Panguna - was "very confident" of holding the seat despite being up against ten male candidates.
She was one of 34 women out of a field of more than 400 candiates contesting seats in the Bougainville House of Representatives.
In 2020, she was one of only two women to win an open seat.
Matbob was a vocal advocate who led a successful campaign to have Rio Tinto, a mining multi-national, to consider the damage caused by the mine it used to own.
She was at the forefront of the push for an assessment into the damage caused by the troubled Panguna gold mine - one of the world's largest copper and gold mines - in the autonomous Papua New Guinea region.
Theonila Roka Matbob, one of the most prominent female candidates in the Bougainville election, has lost her seat.
Matbob, the member for Ioro in Central Bougainville - a region encompassing Panguna - was "very confident" of holding the seat despite being up against ten male candidates.
She was one of 34 women out of a field of more than 400 candiates contesting seats in the Bougainville House of Representatives.
In 2020, she was one of only two women to win an open seat.
Matbob was a vocal advocate who led a successful campaign to have Rio Tinto, a mining multi-national, to consider the damage caused by the mine it used to own.
She was at the forefront of the push for an assessment into the damage caused by the troubled Panguna gold mine - one of the world's largest copper and gold mines - in the autonomous Papua New Guinea region.