Caption: Dr Eric Kwa
By
MATTHEW VARI
Sunday,
CONSTITUTIONAL Law Reform Commission Secretary Dr Eric Kwa
sympathized with Registry of Political Parties and Candidates following yet
another saga involving the much scrutinized revised Organic Law on the
Integrity of Political Parties and Candidates (OLIPPAC).
He said that despite being one of the most thoroughly
transperent laws to go through the system since its initial revision in 2012-
taking three years to date and yet to be tabled in parliament.
"I feel sorry for the registrar of political parties and
candidates because we finished this Organic Law revision in 2012, but it has
taken 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015 to actually share it with everybody out in the
public," Kwa said.
"This is probably the most scrutinized piece of
legislation that we have ever come across. It has now gone through everyone and
has been made public and it is still there- the government has not made the
decision to present on the floor."
"It is the most openly transparent organic law that we
have now pushed through the government system."
His comments came amidst the publication of a security
bulletin by a corporate entity linking recent protest that were planned to be
held earlier in the week as parliament sat on Tuesday that indicated that the
registry had revise certain sections to protects the PM from being voted out in
a confidence vote.
As part of the committee involved closely in the drafting
process of the revised law he said that the proposed law is a result of
extensive collaborative effort by various stakeholders and not solely the
registry.
"I am also very surprised that there is this security
notice that has been given about the protest yesterday and it is connected to
the OLIPPAC," he said.
"Let me put this very clear to the nation that the new
revised OLIPPAC is a team effort by different stakeholders. I can assure the
country that we never crafted the law secretly somewhere where we put our own
ideas together."
"This particular revised organic law emanated from the
supreme court decision of 2010 that nullified a number of sections of the
OLIPPAC and so a number of us from different organizations got together to
assist the registrar of political parties and candidates to develop this new
organic law."
"We looked at various angles of the decision and tried
to meet the requirements of the Supreme Court."
He added that for individuals to suggest they are in contempt
was totally baseless because the decision of the Supreme Court is binding.
"We needed to work within the framework of the Supreme
Court Decision that was made in 2010 and respond to the decision by amending the
provisions that the Supreme Court said were not constitutional."
"This work did not take us six months, three months, two
months, or one month for that matter. We started work on this since October
2011."
"The registry has been doing a lot of consultation with
the public and the relevant stakeholders. We have even come out to the press
explaining certain provisions and even responded to certain criticisms we have
done that quiet openly."
In May 2014 the government approved the draft for public
viewing and it was gazetted as per the process of taking a law to parliament.
“The idea of getting it gazetted is
so that the public now can approach the registry of political parties and give
its views,” Kwa explained.
“Based on the commentaries the
government will decide at a certain point to table the law. I am pretty sure
that the decision has not been made yet when to table it, and so it is already
wrong to suggest that it is going to be table this week.”
“Let me assure Papua New Guinea
that there is nothing devious, there is nothing ill-conceived about this bill.”
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