Report sees room for parties to improve

MOST people in Papua New Guinea do not know the political parties and are not members, according to last year’s national election observation report compiled by the Registry of Political Parties and Candidates.
The report highlighted that the overall performance of political parties were very poor and not visible.
“The majority of the people are not members of political parties because political parties fail to make themselves visible and recruit members,” the report said.
It also said political parties did not campaign throughout the country and newer parties fared worse than the established ones.
Political Parties Registrar Dr Alphonse Gelu said based on the findings, a number of recommendations were proposed, one of which was for a wide awareness exercise to make people aware of parties.
“They must know the names of political parties, their leaders and executives and their policies,” he said.
“People must know the importance of political parties and what they are and how they contribute to the development of the country.”
Gelu said it would be meaningless to talk about political parties when the people did not know what they were and their contributions to the development of the country.