Highlands women thank MPs for support

WOMEN in the Highlands have thanked members of parliament for passing the Bill on the reserved seats for women.
Speaking on behalf of more than a million women in the Highlands region, Chimbu Women In Politics president Dre Cecilia Kimagl commended former Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare for initiating the bill during his time in office.
Kimagl also thanked the lone female parliamentarian, Dame Carol Kidu, for introducing the bill.
She said the final process had yet to come when parliament would sit in March.
Kimagl urged national and provincial women leaders to be careful when associating themselves with aspiring politicians or sitting parliamentarians.
She warned if they were seen by sitting MPs to be associating with rival political parties, the bill would not get the required 73 votes next year.
Kimagl said if women were not careful of their conduct and behaviour, they might not secure the 73 votes required to make the legislative amendments to the Organic law.
Then the allocation of the 22 women seats in parliament would have to be postponed to 2017, she said.
She appealed to MPs to give the same support next March to make their dreams become reality.
Kimagl thanked other national women’s lea­ders like National Council of Women president Scholar Kakas, Women In-Politics national president Maria Hayes, Margaret Lokoloko and Babara Toea for lobbying for the bill.