PM pledges to clean up process

PRIME Minister James Marape has promised to clean up the electoral process to create a free and fair election that will give a fair chance for women candidates to be voted into parliament.
The prime minister addressed the issue while speaking at the first PNG Political Parties and Women in Political Leadership Forum on Thursday in Port Moresby.
He said he would like to clean the electoral process so that elections were free and fair, providing a conducive environment for women and men to enter into parliament on their own merits.
“It is about time we strengthen the process of the electoral pathway and create a better environment for elections so that candidates can succeed on their own merits,” Marape said.
“There is still room for improvement.”
Marape also gave his commitment to bring the revised Organic Law on the Integrity of Political Parties and Candidates (ILIPPAC) to Cabinet again and to work towards a possible tabling in Parliament next year.
He also expressed his interest to see the recommendations that will come from the forum and urged the Registrar Dr Alphonse Gelu and his team to start carrying out awareness on political parties and their policy platforms leading up to the 2022 national elections.
Marape said although there were no women in Parliament in this term, women’s participation in political leadership in the country was not bleak.
“It has taken some countries more than the 44 years that we have been politically independent to elect women into Parliament,” he said.
“Let me remind you that participation of women in political leadership for women in Papua New Guinea started in 1977, two years after Independence with the election of Dame Josephine Abaijah and Nahau Rooney into Parliament, then House of Assembly.”
However, Marape reiterated that there was still room for improvement, without infringing on the right of the citizens of Papua New Guinea to choose the leaders they believed could serve the interest of the people and the country best.