MPs who crossed floor still listed with Opposition, says Gelu

By HELEN TARAWA
THE move by MPs John Simon (Maprik) and Jimmy Uguro (Usino-Bundi) from National Alliance Party to the government is still unofficial, according to Registrar of Political Parties Dr Alphonse Gelu.
Dr Gelu said his office had not received a formal letter advising it of the MPs’ move.
Western Governor Taboi Awi Yoto indicated yesterday that he, too, was crossing the floor to the Government side.
Gelu said Simon and Uguro should write in so necessary changes could be made to the political party list. He was not aware yesterday of Yoto’s move.
“Officially, we have not received any formal letters from them of them moving so we do not know,” Gelu said.
“Effectively, they are still members of the National Alliance. They can press conference, they can move to the other side but our listings we still have them as members of the NA Party. Until such time that we receive those documents then we will change their membership,.”
Simon and Uguro asked to be released from the National Alliance Party last week to allow them to join the Government
Dr Gelu said they had a monitoring system of movements of MPs from 2012 to 2017 and they also had similar records for the next five-year term.
“We have a list of MPs moving from one party to another so these are information that are kept in our database. In this Parliament we are doing the same, so we keep a record of the number of MPs that moved parties so that it’s public information.”