Bougainville referendum

I WRITE to clarify and respond to a very important point raised by J Minsipi (LLM) of AROB on the question of the Bougainville referendum being provided for in the PNG Constitution in The National (July 25).
May I also thank J Minspi for taking the time to write and highlight the misunderstanding created by the partial publication of my article.
J Minsipi is quite correct in the points made regarding the article on the subject of provisions for the Bougainville referendum in the PNG Constitution, based on the first part of the article published by The National on July 6.
The second part of the article not published contained the explanation that while the PNG Constitution does not provide for referendums as a mechanism for the electorate to make their views known on a matter of public policy, only the Bougainville Peace Agreement (BPA) provides for a referendum.
The people of Bougainville will make their policy choice on an important matter that was first agreed to in the BPA and subsequently accommodated through an amendment to the PNG national Constitution.
As I understand, it is a special one-off provision for a referendum on Bougainville’s political future and not for any other public policy issue. In short, it is provided for in the PNG Constitution as the third pillar in the implementation of the Bougainville Peace Agreement and must be held before June 2020.
It is unfortunate that many readers reached the same conclusions as Minsipi mainly because the article was not published in
full. Readers who want to read the full article can email [email protected].
The issues around the implementation of the Bougainville Peace Agreement and particularly the forthcoming referendum leading to a political future for Bougainville is an important final step to the signing of the BPA.
The research reports and the series of articles based on the research reports are intended to inform and generate discussions leading to better preparations for the referendum, the actual conduct of the referendum and more importantly, the implementation of the referendum results so that the end objective of the Bougainville Peace Agreement is reached.
This is the first time a referendum is being held in PNG and therefore we need to learn from how others have administered referendums.
We can then adapt to our unique situation and prepare appropriately for a credible referendum leading to an outcome respected by all parties.
I apologise for the misunderstanding created and will attempt to take appropriate steps to ensure that in future, referendum articles are either published in full or not at all.
The PNG NRI will also release the articles on the PNG NRI website and on social media a few days after the opportunity has been given for the papers to run the articles.

Thomas Webster.
Team Leader
Bougainville Referendum
Research Project