Gelu encourages people to become members of parties

PEOPLE are encouraged to become members of political parties to be able to endorse candidates and increase opportunities for women to be elected into national and local level governments (LLGs).
Registrar of Political Parties Dr Alphonse Gelu said this at the opening of a week-long expo in Kokopo, East New Britain, yesterday to familiarise the public about political parties.
Gelu said they encouraged women, men and youths to be part of political parties, especially youths now with a programme to send a team to education institutions in the province to make them aware about parties and how they could be part of one.
“After a survey on the perception of people of political parties in 2016 and 2017, and observation of a national election, many people still lacked the knowledge and did not understand the importance of political parties,” he said.
Gelu said political parties played a critical role in a democracy through the electoral process because they acted as vehicles through which citizens could stand for public office and get elected.
He encouraged women leaders who would be contesting the election and other candidates to visit the parties’ booth and obtain more information. The objective of the roadshow was for political parties to make themselves known to the people in terms of their party ideologies, values and policies and for citizens to understand the purpose of political parties and their significant roles.
There are 46 registered political parties in the country currently.
The show continues tomorrow, Thursday and Friday.