Electoral law review held up by funding problems

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By LUKE KAMA
THE Constitutional and Law Reform Commission (CLRC) has suspended a review of the country’s electoral laws which is now underway for two weeks pending the release of funds from the national government, Secretary Dr Eric Kwa, pictured, says.
Kwa told The National yesterday that 10 provinces were already being covered for consultation and they were Western Highlands, Jiwaka, Chimbu, Eastern Highlands, Morobe, Bougainville, East New Britain, West New Britain, Manus and New Ireland.
He said the government had made “a very good decision to review” the electoral laws right after the election and exciting views were coming from citizens right across the country on ways to improve the electoral system.
“We are really happy that we have now completed 10 provinces,” Kwa said.
“We have got to still complete three Highlands provinces – Enga, Hela and Southern Highlands – as they have got problems with disaster and emergencies so we didn’t go.
“But the governors are really excited and they still want us to go so we are waiting for additional funding,” Kwa said.
He said the government had given K3 million and that had been exhausted.
“We have now exhausted the K3 million and they have asked us to acquit the K 3million and they are happy to release the next batch of money.
“So we have suspended the programme for two weeks.
“This week and next week we will submit our acquittals of the initial K3 million for transparency and accounting purposes.
“They (Finance and Treasury) have given us assurance to release the next batch of funds to complete the rest of the country.
“So we are waiting for the next release of funds and then we will go out to complete Mamose, which is only Madang and East and West Sepik, Hela, Enga and Southern Highlands for the Highlands region and the whole of Southern region.”
Dr Kwa said the Niugini Islands were completed and the views that they were getting from the people were very useful.
“They have given us some really interesting ideas about how we can improve our electoral system.
“And I thank the Government for taking a bold step to undertake the review and allocate resources and funding to do so right after the 2017 national election.”