Party sackings ‘news’ to registrar of political parties

By JEFFREY ELAPA
THE Registrar of Political Parties and Candidates Sir Kina Bona said any sacking of parliamentary members by parties should be done in accordance to the party constitution.
Sir Kina made the comment after the Enga NA branch claimed to have sacked acting Prime Minister Sam Abal and the United Resources Party sacked Minister assisting the PM and     Minister for Administrative Services and Transport Francis Potape.
Duma announced that Potape was also sacked from his party during a press conference yesterday for continuous insubordination in the presence of the deputy party leader and Governor of Eastern Highlands Malcolm Kela-Smith and member for Dei Puri Ruing.
Other parliamentary members of URP were not present, including the founder and Southern Highlands Governor Anderson Agiru.
Sir Kina said it was news to him as he was not aware of any notice before him regarding the sacking of the two.
However, he said he could not interfere with the party matters but he expected to see all parties follow their party constitution.
“Any decision should be in accordance with the party law as any decision made outside the party constitution is unconstitutional,” he said.
Potape when contacted said that he was not aware of his sacking by the party leader and if he was sacked then it was not proper because he was never charged and the decision was not deliberated by the party caucus.
“Under the party constitution, I should have been given 14 days to response to the charges and appropriate decisions are made by the caucus but none of that happened as there was no party caucus meeting. This is a new case to me and, if it is true, then he’s only trying to destroy the party because the party leader does not have any powers to sack parliamentary members.”