The Registry of Political Parties and Candidates clarified today that it is responsible for the proposed amendments to the Organic Law on the Integrity of Political Parties and Candidates or OLIPPAC.
In response to media reports and political critiques, Registrar Doctor Alphonse Gelu said the proposed amendments to section 145 to do with the vote of no confidence is among 6 other amendments.
Doctor Gelu said these proposed amendments to the Constitution were proposed by the team that the Registry put together and not the current O’Neill-Dion Government.
Dr. Gelu said a team comprised of 5 staff from the Registry, 2 from the Constitutional & Law Reform Commission, 3 from the State Solicitor’s Office, a lawyer from the Law School UPNG, and two prominent political scientists from the National Research Institute and Mr. Paul Bengo, former Registrar, were part of the proposed amendments.
He said they looked specifically at the proposed amendment to Section 145 that the media and political critiques have exaggerated on.
He said the amendments are in the consultation phase and will be presented to parliament to be debated on before it is finalized.
He said that the vote of no confidence that is mentioned in Section 145 is against the Prime Minister and not the government, so that effectively means that once a vote of no confidence is successful, it will be the Prime Minister that will step down and not the entire government.
Therefore, a new Prime Minister has to be elected and the team proposed that the Prime Minister be nominated from the party that was invited to form the government after an election.
But more so, this is to allow the government to continue governance while maintaining political stability (which was elusive in the past) in the country.
Dr. Gelu said the proposed Subsection gives other candidates and parties to put their hands up to be the Prime Minister and also to form the government.
The proposed amendment to Section 145 (b) is part of 6 proposed amendments to the Constitution.
They include;
– Freedom of assembly and association – Section 47
– Voting in parliament – Section 114
– Parliamentary privileges – Section 115
– Amendments to subdivision H – Section 127
– Repeal and replace amendment 128 and
– Amendment to Section 145
These amendments are necessary in order to make the revised OLIPPAC compliant to the Constitution.
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