Change way of electing governors

THERE is a law currently in place regarding MPs, which has been overlooked by governments over the last 45 years since Independence and something should be done about it now.
Under the Papua New Guinea Constitution, an electorate represented by a MP should have a population of 40,000 and no more.
That means MPs are not allowed to represent an electorate of more than 40,000 people.
This means that any MP representing more than that figure is doing so illegally.
The National Statistics Office and the Electoral Commission should work together to identify electorates of more than 40,000 people and recommend new electorates in this year’s national census.
Papua New Guinea should move away from the “land of the unexpected” mentality and do things according to our constitution if we are to compete with other developing nations around the world.
We should abolish regional seats and create more electorates for the MPs of a particular province to choose their governor.
Currently, our prime ministers and local level government (LLG) presidents are elected by MPs and our LLG councillors and governors are elected through the ballot boxes in the general elections.
That is politically wrong.
Once provincial seats are done away with, our governors can fall back and contest any open electorate seats.
After winning, they can push for the governor’s post.
Papua New Guinean leaders should stop unnecessary personal political attacks.
They should start working together to build a strong political foundation for our future generations.
PNG should invest more in education, agriculture, forestry and fisheries in order to build our human resources and promote downstream processing of our natural resources.
Only then, we can create employment opportunities and produce our own consumable goods and turn import commodities into export.
That is if we are serious about taking back our country and making it the richest black Christian nation.
This nation cannot continue to sit back and watch high rates of population growth with high costs of living standards and high rate of unemployment.
Next year’s national general elections will be a huge test for this nation to elect good leaders with good party policies to drive this nation forward.

Samson C Napo,
Former Bulolo MP