GOVERNMENT WITHOUT NUMBERS HAS COLLAPSED


by LUTHER WENGE

One of the Papua New Guinea’s outstanding constitutional lawyers and former Morobe Governor, Luther Wenge, has spoken out regarding the latest political saga, where 12 ministers under Prime Minister James Marape, defected and joined the Opposition.
Mr Wenge (Pictured) says in Parliament, it is all about the numbers and the Opposition under Vanimo-Green MP, Belden Namah, mastered their numerical strength to suspend the order of the day and moved two important motions that Friday.
This is the view from Mr Wenge, on the recent saga, which he adds has seen Prime Minister James Marape effectively, having lost control of his own government coalition.
This, Mr Wenge says, is alright as long as the Opposition leader has the numbers to back him up because all motions on the floor of parliament must be backed with the actual numbers of Members of Parliament, voting in support.
On the 2021 national budget passage on Tuesday afternoon, Mr Wenge says unlike the moving of motions in parliament, which requires more than half of the total Members of Parliament, 37 MPs present is enough, as long as they all vote in favor.
However, Mr Wenge, says the current government faction under James Marape, cannot pass a national budget without the Opposition critiquing and responding to the budget readings.
With the Opposition seeking a Supreme Court reference, Mr Wenge called on the Supreme court to quickly to deal with this matter for the sake of the country as this latest saga is unprecedented.
During Mr Wenge’s three terms as governor between 1997 and 2012, he instituted and won seven different cases against the state in the Supreme Court, which includes, the compensation by the State on the Wotarais people in Markham valley after suffering from one of the worst police brutality cases in the country in the late 1990s, the victory in court on behalf of the local shareholders of Mainland Holdings from the corporative societies in rural Morobe, against mismanagement by company executives, the removal of Value Added Tax, the ouster of Australian Federal Police in the first ever partnership arrangement where they were immune from PNG criminal laws, the successful battle for reinstatement of the third level government in the form of Local Level Governments.
NBC News - Gabriel Lahoc

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