Drama plays out as House gets in order

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A SHOUTING match opened the first session of the 10th Parliament with the Opposition MPs demanding that certain MPs be removed from the chamber.
Acting Clerk of Parliament Kala Aufa had just started proceedings when Sinasina-Yongomugl MP Kereng Kua raised a point of order.
He said there were five candidates who should be told to leave the chamber because of questions remaining over their elections.
They were Ialibu-Pangia MP Peter O’Neill, Gumine MP Nick Kuman, Hela Governor Philip Undialu, Hagen MP William Duma and North Waghi MP Fabian Pok.
Kua told Aufa: “You are now charged with the administration of the standing order in the absence of an elected speaker, and the point of order has to be determined now.
“We are now proceeding into the formalities of a supposedly constituted floor of parliament and every individual on the floor of this parliament has to be duly elected.
“Right now, you have so many strangers on the floor of the parliament and you are duty-bound under Standing Order 242 to order the withdrawal of strangers.”
The MPs kept demanding that Aufa adjourn parliament and that Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia should leave while the issues were sorted out. But Aufa proceeded with the reading of the names of the members who stood and made their declarations before Sir Salamo.
The MPs signed their declarations before Sir Injia.
The proceedings to elect the speaker and prime minister then followed.
Kua said under the Standing Orders, the clerk of parliament who was the acting speaker had the power to order the withdrawl of “strangers”.