Govt asked to review electoral boundaries

THE Government has been asked to review electoral boundaries and their terms of reference to include reserved seats for women.
The review will include a sunset clause for three terms of parliament for women leaders subject to be reviewed by the government of the day.
Two members of parliament raised the issue of electoral boundaries during grievance debate on Friday.
Alotau MP Charles Abel and Gulf Governor Chris Haiveta said the Electoral Boundaries Commission should be reviewed to have a permanent institution in place.
Abel said since 1977 only two reports by the Electoral Boundaries were presented in Parliament and in both instances they were rejected.
“Electoral boundaries are meant to be reviewed and a report brought back to parliament every 10 years by the boundaries commission.
“Parliament does not have the powers by constitution to amend or vary those reports.
“They can only accept or reject them, part of the process is that we try to review the whole country at one time,” Haiveta said.
“In the last boundaries report, the commission recommended 26 new open electorates to parliament.
“Not only that these reports tend to come late so what happens is that parliament tries to absorb these whole changes, are concerned about the electoral implications in the coming election and tendency has to be to reject the report.”
Haiveta recommended that the government should look at reviewing the commission in order to have a permanent institution.