B’ville results in parlt this year

BOUGAINVILLE Affairs Minister Manasseh Makiba says the Bougainville referendum results will be tabled in Parliament before the end of the year.
“In accordance with section 342 of the Constitution, the minister responsible for Bougainville is required to table the results of the Bougainville referendum in Parliament for a decision.
“I will therefore be tabling the results of the referendum and the report of the post-referendum consultations to the Parliament before the end of 2023 after the procedures for tabling and decision of Parliament are put in place,” he said.
He said this in Parliament yesterday.
“The Bougainville Peace Agreement (BPA) clearly stipulates that Bougainvilleans must be given an opportunity to indicate their preferred political future through a referendum “no earlier than 10 years and, in any case, no later than 15 years after the election of the first autonomous Bougainville government” (BPA clause 312 (a)).
“The referendum would provide ‘independence’ as one of the choices.
“The constitutionally guaranteed referendum was held in November 2019 and 97.7 per cent of participants voted in favour of the independence option.
“Although the people of Bougainville have voted overwhelmingly for independence, both the BPA and the Constitution require that National Parliament must make a decision on the referendum result.
“According to section 342 of the Constitution, (1) the Government and the Bougainville Government shall consult over the results of the Referendum and (2) subject to the consultation referred to subsection (1), the minister responsible for the Bougainville referendum shall take the results of the Referendum in Parliament and the speaker of Parliament shall furnish to the Bougainville Executive a copy of the minutes of the relevant proceedings and of any decision made in National Parliament regarding the referendum,” he said.