Namah gets bill petition

By ELLEN TIAMU
DEPUTY Prime Minister Belden Namah has undertaken to see enabling legislation for the 22 reserved seats for women passed in the next sitting of parliament.
Namah was handed a petition by businesswoman and women’s advocate Janet Sape and other women leaders at a fundraising dinner in Lae on Saturday evening.
The petition, while applauding the government for adopting affirmative action towards improving women’s parliamentary representation in the country, pointed out that MPs still had to pass the Bill on the 22 reserved seats for it to become law.
The petition highlighted two other amendments to the Organic Law on National and Local Level Government Elections that needed an outright 82 votes to be passed.
They are the retention of the governors seats or provincial seats and the reduction of Open Seats from 110 to 89.
The petition said these three categories of electorates, as provided for in Sections 101(a), (b) and (d) of the Constitution, were in the balance and if not taken seriously by MPs it could prove politically and constitutionally disastrous.
The women leaders said a precedent had already been set by the fact that the Electoral Commission had proceeded with the election of Governors (provincial members) in the 2007 general election without amendments to the law on national and LLG elections.
They said open and women’s seats should be allowed to happen if outstanding amendments to the enabling laws were not passed by parliament.
The petition was endorsed by the National Council of Women, Women in Business, Coalition for Change, business and professional women’s associations, Papua Hahine Social Action Forum, Trade Union Congress and Soroptimist International (PNG).