Registrar explains law on sackings

National, Normal
Source:

The National – Thursday, June 23, 2011

By JULIA DAIA BORE
THE sacking of any parliamentary member of a political party is not official unless and until all documentation of the party’s caucus meeting minutes is given to the registrar of political parties and candidates, Sir Kina Bona says.
He said to verify any such sacking, all these “paper work” had to be shown to be adequately documented.
Sir Kina’s comments were further cemented by the Attorney-General, Sir Arnold Amet, who emphasised that the “sacking” resolution reached by any party caucus must be shown to have been a decision of “a majority vote”.
“Even then, if there is any dispute, the ‘sacked’ member has the right to an appeal; both at the party level and in the courts if the aggrieved chooses to take it further,” Sir Kina, who is registrar of political parties and candidates, said.
Sir Kina and Sir Arnold were commenting yesterday on the recent alleged sacking of Francis Potape by his party caucus last week; while Anderson Agiru was allegedly sacked on Tuesday.
Both MPs belong to the United Resources Party (URP) of which Agiru is the founder.
The party leader is William Duma.
Yesterday, Sir Kina said there were documents regarding the sacking of Potape at his office.
But, he said, he had not thoroughly seen them to verify if all was in order.
He said despite his office being furnished with the paperwork, it was understood some factions of the party caucus claimed not to have been there when the vote was said to have been taken.
He said under such circumstance, the member concerned had the right to appeal to the party’s national council.
He said until that was exhausted, his office would wait and see.
In the case of Agiru, he said he had yet to see any documentation on his sacking.
The URP is understood to be made up of 16 parliamentary members.
Both MPs are from Southern Highlands: Potape is the MP for Komo-Margarima while Agiru is the regional MP or Southern Highlands governor.