Through a Telescope Backwards- National Politics and the LLGs
JOHN FOWKE The decision taken in 1964 to close down the established embryo political system comprised of the appointed District Advisory Councils interacting with the overarching and partly-democratic Legislative Council was wrong. The system was fully capable of being transformed into a democratic one where full national adult franchise might have been introduced via the Local Government Council system with its existing electoral system, registers, records and procedures for administration, all well-established and well- understood. This linkage of institutions would logically have served the new nation very well when fully democratized and extended to include the then Local Government Councils as the grass-roots end of the whole. This was an established system, well-understood. And it worked. Although I have looked for logic behind the rise of a Westminster-type party parliamentary system in PNG I have not found any evidence of guidance or planning or policy for its introduction