For Papua New Guinea to have political stability, parties and their candidates must have a law ensuring the government of the day completes its full five year term.
Komo Margarim MP Francis Potape (pictured right) said this in light of recent plans to amend the Constitution which will restrict candidates for the position of the Prime Minister after a successful vote of no confidence. The People’s National Congress, led by Prime Minister Peter O’Neill, will be the sole beneficiary of the proposed legislation as it was the political party which was invited by the Governor-General to form government in August 2012 after the general election. Mr Potape said the changes by the government initiated by the Registrar of Political Parties were not a new idea.“These ideas were floating for some time and what the government is doing is in the best interest of the country. During my term as minister assisting the Prime Minister on Constitutional matters this idea was one of the changes I planned in order to bring stability to Parliament, that is to govern the political parties and their candidates the right way,” Mr Potape said. “There must be a process or a system in place to govern our political parties and their candidates and ensure the party with the mandate governs for the full term. ”He said in Australia the party with the mandate governs for the full term and the only changes that happen within the ruling party is when the party votes for their new leader which is the prime minister; and not the whole parliament. “This system should be practiced here in PNG. In this case the PNC was invited by the Governor-General to form the government because they have the mandate,” Mr Potape said. “The PNC must complete its five year term and should there be a change to its leadership, PNC party members vote and decide rather than Parliament.”He said for PNG to ensure political stability everything starts at the polls with parties and their candidates. He said to ensure political maturity there should be a law to govern the following: only qualified candidates (with no criminal record) should contest the polls; there should be an increase in the election fee to K10,000 per candidate; parties endorsing candidates should support them with K35,000 to campaign; the party with the mandate (i.e more winning candidates) should govern for the full term; political parties with less than five winning candi-dates should be dismissed; MPs who resign from one party to join another should automatically resign from the floor of Parliament. Comments are closed.
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