PNGBLOGS

by A Concerned Papua New Guinean Apart from 2022 being the worst election marred by unprecedented violence and i’ll-preparation, the Constitutional Office of the Electoral Commission committed some unforgivable constitutional blunders that throws the entire constitutional process into question. Election is the most important constitutional process that comes once every five years and the organisation mandated to deliver this process got it wrong right from the beginning. Here are the most notable constitutional sins of the EC: 1. Appointment of ROs and AROs were left to the very last minute. There are actions like validating and updating common rolls that the RO is supposed to do before the elections. Since most of the electoral officials are appointed at the eve of elections, they are normally appointed six months before that to prepare them on how to competently manage the elections well. He left it too late and we’ve seen electoral officials undergoing training on the eve of vot

by SAMSON KOMATI During the funeral of the Late Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare in Wewak in 2021 an emotional James Marape while consoling Lady Veronica promised that he would renovate her humble Kreer Heights home in Wewak she shared with her late husband.  Lady Veronica thankfully accepted the offer.   However, after 1 year and 6 months Lady Veronica is still waiting for James Marape to fulfill his promise.  She has literally given up reminding and chasing him up and has now resorted to living in the basement of the one of her daughter's NBC houses in  Wewak. James Marape has over the last 3 years gone all over the country making numerous promises which he has no means, intention or ability to fulfill.  He has a tendency to make promises to people to please them. But for him to make an empty promise to the grieving widow of the Father of the Nation is cardinal sin.  It goes against common decency. The Tari man publicly potrays himself as an humble and honest person. This is a fals

  by JACKSON KIAKARI Parliament today debated the amendment to create 7 new Districts in the country. And I must say the Opposition Leader raised some very important, serious and pragmatic concerns around the rationale behind such an amendment and its associated impacts. I will leave the post-parliamentary debate to constitutional law experts and others who know the technicalities better to dive deeper into the pros and cons of such an important change. What I could not help notice was that the majority of the debate was staged on a misconception and flawed understanding of the duties and responsibilities of a member of parliament. Parliament in the 3 arms of government is known as the Legislature or the Legislative Arm of Government. And a member of Parliament by that definition is a Legislator! In my layman understanding, A legislator’s role and responsibility is to introduce, debate and pass laws, amendments, reforms and other changes. Again, I will accept the correction of subject