Caption: Dr Alphonse
Gelu at the Q&A session.
By MATTHEW VARI
IT was the
message given to those that attended a (Q&A) Question and Answer session
hosted by the Office of Registrar of Political Parties and Candidate last week
as part of it consultation process in light of proposed amendments to the
Organic Law on the Integrity of Political Parties and Candidates (OLIPPAC).
Proving this
message the registrar revealed seven new insertions as a result of consultative
workshops held in Lae that included representatives from political parties in
the country in June.
Results of
the learning and development workshop have led to seven new insertions into the
revised OLIPPAC that will be included into the revised law when the parliamentary
committee meets.
“There were
some very important ideas that we will include also into the revised organic
law through a corrigendum (revision) which will take place after the
Parliamentary Committee meets to take peoples views on the changes,” Dr Gelu
said.
The new
insertions will cover various aspects of party activities and issues in terms
of funding, reward, monitoring, disputes, accountability, and restrictions.
- · Parties to report on funding (separate provision for fundraising)
-
Inform
the registry of the fundraising 7 days prior to the event.
-
Declare
to the registry the total amount raised.
-
Disclose
source of donations.
-
Donations
to be included in the annual financial returns.
-
No
government bodies to donate to fundraising activities for political parties.
- · Parties that score 4% and above of the primary vote shall be eligible for a K2 per vote in an election.
- · The registry to conduct a check on the membership of parties every two years.
- · In the event that a dispute within a party drags on, final powers rest wit the registrar to make a decision.
- · Parties to disclose annually to the registry all the accounts held by the party
- · Funding to the opposition to be 6% annually
- · Section 72- contributions from citizens and corporate entities
-
Parties
shall not receive more than K500,000 within a year from both a citizen and
corporate entities (case of a party receiving two lots of K500,000)
“The current
organic law basically left the activity of raising funds out, and like I said
we committed in strengthening parties and an important aspect of that is
financing,” Dr Gelu said
“Other
issues include that of state owned entities financially supporting political
parties which is wrong and must be addressed.”
“Our aim in
the amendment in the organic law is to make the organic law compliant with the
constitution after major provisions were declared unconstitutional by the
Supreme Court on infringing the rights of individual leaders.”
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