I had a look at it and to tell you the truth it the bulk of it is good in terms of bringing stability. I had read a newspaper article that indicated it was very restrictive and here are some of the restrictions it places that are onerous:
- s57: Members of a registered political party can not resign from the party unless they do within a 3 month period before the next elections are called. Further, resignation must be tendered with 30 days of the 3 month period. ie; So if elections are being called in December 2008, you can only quit your political party in September 2008. The only other way of quiting your political party is to show that the party committed a serious breach of its own constitution or has been made insolvent. The onus being on the person wishing to quit the party. Resignation for any other reason amounts to misconduct in office. So say, an independent member joined a party before parliament resumed after an election and 1 year into it finds he/she can't support the actions of that party any longer, it really is a "too bad buddy" situation. That member is stuck with that party for the whole 5 year term!
- s75 & s81: Citizens and non-citizens can donate a maximum of K 500 000 to candidates and political parties. Donating more than that results in a K10 000 fine or jail for no more than 2 years. Are you kidding me? K 500 000! If someone had more than that to donate, i'm sure they are not about to be perturbed by a mere K10 000 fine. Why is the maximum amount so huge? The US Presidential candidates can only have max donations of $US 4600! K 500 000 (or more) is preposterous and allows for favour-buying.
Something interesting though:
- s42(d): The Commission may cancel the registration of a registered political party where – the party without reasonable justification, fails to file financial returns, as required by this Law, for two consecutive years.
I know Somare hasn't been filing them but what about his party? If NA hasn't either then here's another way to get rid of them.
P.S the 18 months grace period for votes of no confidence is contained in s145 of the Constitution.
In other news, PNG will be one of the four Pacific countries Australia involves in their Pacific Solution/working visa arrangement. This makes me very happy because I swear I read just the other day that PNG would in fact NOT be one of the countries in the pilot program and was poised over my keyboard ready to cry out at the unjustice of it all!
Also, because I can't keep up with the hypocrisy, I will now have a column on the side for "Somare says" so we can all keep track of his "fight against corruption." I won't front, I started this blog to give an objective as possible insight on PNG politics and corruption but when the PM continues in the way he has, it's really hard not to just disbelieve and remain sceptical of everything he does say.
Here are two very good letters to the editor from The National: http://www.thenational.com.pg/081908/letter1.php, and; http://www.thenational.com.pg/081908/letter5.php. I strongly agree with the latter, the only way this country can really progress is by developing our human resources in a well- rounded way, education + attitude development, and I have blogged about the importance of ideology before.
Before I leave, here is a blog by a Papua New Guinean really trying to empower the people. I've heard about him and read his column but haven't yet read one of his books which I hope to get around to, he is the type of Papua New Guinean that gives me hope for our country: http://tirikuimbakul.blogspot.com/
Coming up soon: issues/rumours about the judiciary and its independence.
Oh and how much faith can we have in the Finance Department's new corporate plan?
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