Ipatas concerned over absent LLG presidents

ENGA Governor Peter Ipatas has expressed concern over the absence of local level government (LLG) presidents in the provincial assemblies.
Mr Ipatas told a provincial assembly meeting in Enga last Friday that it was sad to see an assembly with less than five appointed members, especially when parliamentarians were constantly absent in meetings to debate on important issues affecting the province.
He said he could not understand the logic of the National Government’s decision last year to amend the Organic Law on Provincial and Local Level Governments to disallow the LLG presidents from being part of the provincial assemblies.
Mr Ipatas further described that particular decision as one of the biggest mistakes the Parliament had ever made to stop the people’s legitimately elected leaders from representing them in an important decision making institution in the province.
“If the MPs would not attend the assembly meetings to represent the people, why did they come up with a law to stop the presidents from being part of the provincial assembly?” he asked.
Mr Ipatas said the notion that any democratic government was by the people, for the people and of the people had been buried and now had no meaning with “our system of government”.
Early this year, Mr Ipatas had sworn in all the 15 LLG presidents in the province to be part of the provincial assembly but they did not last as the National Court declared his action to be illegal following a court proceeding against the move by Lagaip-Porgera MP Philip Kikala.