Commission to address issue of mushrooming political parties

By HELEN TARAWA
The Integrity of Political Parties and Candidates Commission (IPPC) will address the issue of mushrooming political parties to create stability in PNG’s democracy.
Registrar of Political Parties and head of the IPPC, Dr Alphonse Gelu said that PNG continued to have political parties that mushroomed during election periods and disappeared soon after.
“We want to get rid of that mushroom mentality and make them to be organisations that are there and will continue to exist and make an impact in the politics of our country.”
He added that out of the 45 registered political parties only 30 were effective.
Gelu revealed this at the launching of a political parties expo to be held this Saturday.
“We do not discriminate any political parties so when we sent the invitations to all 45 only about 30 responded.
“The theme of the expo is promoting good governance and gender equality and that is something that the registry will work on and stand firm on for the next five years.
“The duty and responsibility is on the political parties, they should be enlisting members from the women and youth.
“It is important that we are targeting our women and youth; it is important that they just embrace this.
“One of the reasons for this expo is that there were complaints from women about political parties not assisting them during 2017 elections.
“It is time now for our women to become members of political parties.
“You do not wait until the last minute to join a political party because they will shut you out and that is what we experienced in 2017 elections.”
Gelu said it was advantageous on the part of women to join parties now and work with the parties as members or executives.