Registry axes 10 political parties

Caption Pic 1: Sir Andrew Trawen

Caption Pic 2: Dr Alphonse Gelu

By MATTHEW VARI

Sunday, August 23, 2015 (Sunday Chronicle, PNG)

THE Registry of Political Parties and Candidate has finally brought down the axe on 10 political parties who have not complied with various sections of the Organic Law on the Integrity of Political Parties and Candidates (OLIPPAC).

Making the announcement, Chairman of the Registry of Political Parties and Candidates Commission, Sir Andrew Trawen, made the announcement on the decision taken on July 17 to cancel the registration of the 10 parties.

The 10 parties include the League for Democracy Party, Pan Melanesia Congress Party, People’s Heritage Party, PNG Conservative Party, Rural Development Party, Transformed PNG Party, Kingdom First Party, New Dawn Transformation Party, National Front Party, and the PNG New Vision Party

Notice for cancellation for the above parties was gazetted on the 13th of August, Government Gazette number G513.

“First and foremost is their failure to comply with the relevant provisions of the organic law (OLIPPAC) which is now getting very tough on non-compliance, especially the submission of the annual returns,” Mr Trawen said.

“Another reason is that they have just disappeared after the 2012 national elections- they have stopped functioning and no longer have any executives in existence.”

“Despite attempts by the registry to make contact with these political parties there has not been any response from them.”

This is not the first time the commission has cancelled the registration of political parties- having done this before for about 15 to 20 political parties since 2002.

“The current focus for the registry is to strengthen political parties and that is what the registry has been doing since 2013 through a number of initiatives that political parties have participated in with the exception of the 10 that have been deregistered.”

“There were 7 other political parties that were also put on notice to explain why they should not be deregistered. However the commission after serious consideration after receiving the responses decided to give them a second chance.”

“From this process the commission does not unnecessarily deregister political parties- they look at the merit of the responses and make the decision accordingly.”

“The registrar and I have met with officers of those seven political parties in this room and I strongly told them to pull up their socks or face deregistration.”

The cancellation of the registration of the 10 parties sees the number of parties in the country to decrease from 45 to 35.

Registrar Dr Alphonse Gelu explained that once deregistered there were restrictions placed on the deregistered party executives.

“There is a process there in the organic law that specifies this that the executives of the political party deregistered cannot immediately join another political party.”

“It will take two years and they cannot form another political party where the organic law is quite clear on the process.”