Women invite PM, MPs to meet

By SALLY TIWARI
A GROUP of professional women in Port Moresby has invited Prime Minister Peter O’Neill and other members of parliament to attend a women’s forum on Sunday at the Institute of Public Administration.
The forum is to discuss and convince MPs to vote for the passage of the Equality and Participation Bill for 22 seats to be reserved in parliament for women and for those seats to use provincial boundaries.
A spokeswoman for the women, Brenda Auhava said they had been quiet for a long time and it was time they took their stand to support other women in pushing for the passage of the Bill on women’s seats.
The professional and grassroots women are backed by Women in Business and they presented an official invitation to O’Neill’s chief-of-staff Ben Micah.
Auhava said she had been told by Micah that O’Neill was away on official duties but was in full support of the women’s call to pass the Bill.
She said Micah challenged the women saying they had to convince the MPs in the Somare camp as well as the few MPs who had been voting against the Bill before Parliament resumed on Tuesday.
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