Registry pays K200,000 to 14 political parties

By LUKE KAMA
THE Registry of Political Parties and Candidates paid K200,000 to 14 political parties in Port Moresby yesterday.
Registrar Dr Alphonse Gelu said the payments were for political parties who had MPs in Parliament in 2016.
He said 19 parties were eligible to receive funding from the Central Fund in 2017, however, only the 14 smaller ones were paid.
“The reasons why only 14 parties will receive their funding today is because the registry only received K300,000 in 2017 for funding to political parties,” Gelu said.
“The amount that was supposed to be given to the Central Fund is K1.1million as stipulated in the Organic Law.”
Gelu said the K1.1million was a constitutional grant that the Government must commit from the budget but had not done so.
“As a result of Government not allocating the full amount of K1.1million, the five largest political parties who had more MPs will not receive their funding until the registry gets the outstanding constitutional grants from the Government,” he said.
He said the five largest political parties in 2016 were People’s National Congress, National Alliance, United Resource Party, People’s Progress Party and Triumph Heritage Empowerment Party.
Gelu said the funds paid were for the 2016 fiscal year were calculated based on the current formula under the Organic Law where K10,000 is paid to political party per MP.
“We were unable to release the funds to political parties last year because of the national election,” he said. The 14 parties which received payment yesterday were one with four MPs, three with two MPs and 10 with one MP.
Gelu urged the Government to release the outstanding K800,000 owed to the Central Fund.