Polye for PM: Marape

THE Highlands block of the National Alliance party will propose ousted Kandep MP Don Polye for the post of prime minister.
At present, Mr Polye does not qualify as he is not a Member of Parliament, nor does he lead the Highlands faction of the ruling party.
But it seems the current Highlands faction is confident of him winning the seat back in the by-election.
Interim deputy parliamentary leader (Highlands) and Minister for Education James Marape revealed this plan last Friday in Mt Hagen city in front of a big crowd during a political rally.
Mr Marape, who was the Tari-Pori MP, said they would put forward Mr Polye’s name for the top post when the party held its national convention in Minj next year.
Mr Marape said the party was backing Mr Polye to win back his old seat.
He said the party believed in good leadership and Mr Polye was one of the good leaders the country had.
Minister for Internal Security and Member for Mul-Baiyer Sani Rambi supported Mr Marape.
Mr Rambi said the Highlands had plenty of natural resources and must have a say on the distribution of these wealth.
He said this was where Mr Polye came in.
He described Mr Polye as a transparent leader who had shown good leadership qualities.
Mr Rambi said the rally they hosted for Mr Polye in Mt Hagen was not for the Kandep people but for the country as a whole.
Mr Polye’s campaign team had taken out advertisements in the newspapers about the rally all last week.
But some of the prominent people from within the party who were slated to speak did not attend.
They included Treasurer Patrick Pruaitch (deputy leader Momase region), and Planning Minister Paul Tiensten (deputy leader Islands region).
Mr Marape said they had excuses for their absence.
He said they had work commitment to attend to and could not make it.
Mr Pruaitch and Tiensten would be likely rivals for Mr Polye when the four regions of the ruling party jostle for the right person to replace Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare as the leader of the party.