O’Neill: Independence is not a constitutional right

PRIME Minister Peter O’Neill says the Constitution does not allow any province or region in the country to get independence.
“Constitutional requirements in our country have got to be taken into account that there are no provisions in the Constitution and advice from constitutional lawyers is that the Constitution certainly does not say that there is a provision which we can say that we can give away or separate our country to one part of our country to be independent.
There is no such provision in the Constitution. And that contradicts the Peace Agreement that we have signed in respect to Bougainville.”
South Bougainville MP and Deputy Opposition leader Timothy Masiu said that the special Joint Supervisory Body Meeting in Port Moresby last month did not achieve the expected results.
And O’Neill said that joint meeting was delayed because officials from the national and Autonomous Bougainville governments did not agree to the questions that were going to be voted during the referendum.
“The questions have been discussed and formulated in several meetings over the past three months and trying to agree to questions that will be put to the people.”
O’Neill said that he had received four questions from officials from the national government and ABG that would be put to the people to answer during the referendum in 10 months’ time.