Gelu not happy with preparation by parties

 By MALUM NALU
REGISTRAR of Political Parties and Candidates Dr Alphonse Gelu is “very disappointed” with preparations by political parties, including the ruling People’s National Congress, for next year’s general election.
He said this after a three-day workshop in Wewak to discuss the preparations by political parties for 2017.
Dr Gelu told The National that he was similarly disappointed after the workshop in April.
“When I asked them how many have revised your policies, it is only a few,” he said.
“Very few parties have revised their policies. In fact, at the workshop in Wewak, PNC was not there. PNC, the biggest party in the current coalition, the ruling party.
“PNC’s interest in these learning and development workshops has been very poor.
“I want to say publicly that I’m very disappointed with them. I’ve informed them that you need to do this but they haven’t been responding.
“PNC was not there, PPP (People’s Progress Party) was not there – these are parties in the current Government.”
Dr Gelu said smaller parties looked up to the bigger parties.
“When PNC is not there, or when PNC does not contribute anything, we at the registry are asking what’s happening here,” he said.
“I think the important thing is not to personalise political parties. Give the party back to the members – that’s what we’ve been encouraging parties to do.
“One of the other important things we’ve been telling them is for them to start going out and recruiting members – that is very important for them.
“Parties in Papua New Guinea don’t have the money. I want all the parties to be available, I want all the parties to start thinking about the 2017 election.”