Registration of new membership for political parties

Registrar Dr Alphonse Gelu

Dr Alphonse Gelu        

The Registry of Political Parties recently registered new membership for political parties in the districts of Bogia and Sumkar in the Madang Province and also in Alotau, Milne Bay Province. Registration of membership in Bogia and Sumkar was done during the awareness exercise on political parties and in Alotau during the Kenu Festival.

Registration of membership for political parties is one of the important responsibilities of political parties in any democracy. Unfortunately in Papua New Guinea, political parties are not doing this. There is this reality of a strong detachment between the people and the parties that makes parties weak as democratic institutions in the country. Parties are not empowering the people to become members of their respective organisations and become active participants in the affairs of the parties.

Bogia and Sumkar Districts

Four teams from the Registry were deployed in the districts, 2 in Sumkar and 2 in Bogia from October 3rd to the 10^th, 2018. The awareness took almost a week where the teams went into the villages and spoke with the people on the questions of; what are political parties, what is the role of political parties, how many political parties we have in Papua New Guinea, who are the leaders of the political parties, how the parties can be contacted, why it is important to join a party, why it is important to consider supporting women candidates, etc.

Villagers in Bogia listening to officers conducting the awareness

The awareness in Bogia and Sumkar districts is part of the priority for the Registry in the next 3 to 4 years to educate our people about political parties. From the encounter with the people, it was obvious that the people in the 2 districts have limited knowledge about political parties and why they are important to our country. Many have not heard about political parties and many don’t even know the policies and leadership of political parties in the country. This lack of knowledge on parties had contributed to the style of voting that has been predominant since the 1970s where the voters vote for candidates than the political parties.

To the people in Bogia and Sumkar, they only see political parties come around their districts during the elections. After the elections, political parties are not seen or heard of. This reality has prompted the Registry to make an urgent call to all the political parties to go to villages and districts throughout the country and make themselves known to the people.

Political parties have failed miserably to do this especially the executives of the 45 political parties that we now have in the country. Their failures to make contact with the people is counterproductive to the process of the invitation that is made to a party that has won the majority of seats in the election to form the government. The relationship between the people and the parties must be strengthened and this can only be done if the executives play their part by putting in place a program to make them visible to the people.

For the parties, this exercise should start immediately after the last concluded election in 2017 and continue into 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021. The period in between the election is 5 years and this is plenty of time for the political parties to re-group and start on re-building themselves for the next election.

During the awareness in Bogia and Sumkar, the Registry also on behalf of the political parties enlisted membership for political parties. This is shown in Table 1 and Table 2.

Table 1: Membership Registration in Sumkar District (Team 1 & 2)
No	Political Parties	Total Membership
1	Peoples National Congress	13
2	Pangu Party	77
3	Allegiance Party	39
4	National Alliance Party	33
5	Peoples Progress Party	8
6	PNG National Party	2
7	Social Democratic Party	3
8	Peoples Labour Party	54
9	United Resources Party	1
10	Model Nation Party	3
11	PNG Trust Party	1
12	PNG Human Rights	1
13	Coalition for Reform Party	2
14	PNG Country Party	1

From Table 1, a total of 238 people were registered as members of the 14 political parties, with Pangu leading followed by People’s Labour Party and others. This is an indication of how many people in Sumkar prefer which parties as indicated in the registration of members.

Table 2: Membership Registration in Bogia District (Team 2 &3)
No	Political Parties	Total Membership
1	Peoples National Congress	12
2	Pangu Party	33
3	Allegiance Party	46
4	National Alliance Party	34
5	Peoples Progress Party	10
6	PNG National Party	4
7	People's Democratic Movement Party	1
8	People's Movement for Change	1
9	Social Democratic Party	3
10	Peoples Labour Party	58
11	PNG One Nation Party	1
12	Grassroots United Party	1
13	SOM Pioneer Party	9
14	Melanesian Alliance Party	6
15	PNG Party	8
16	Mapai Levites Party	1
17	PNG Greens Party	1
18	New Generation Party	1
19	THE Party	2
20	Peoples Party	3
21	PNG Socialist Party	1

From the above table, People’s Labour Party had 58 people registered as its members followed by Allegiance with 46 and Pangu and National Alliance following closely. The Registry managed to register 233 people for the 21 parties included in Table 2 in Bogia.

Kenu Festival - Alotau

In November 3, 4 and 5, the Registry attended the Kenu Festival in Alotau. A stall was given to the Registry which the Registry used to distribute information on political parties to the public. In the 3 days well over 1000 people were given information packs and the staff from the Registry including the Registrar were present talking to the people about the political parties in the country and their importance to our democracy. Beside this, the Registrar was also on NBC – Radio Milne Bay and spoke about the purpose of the Registry’s presence at the Kenu Festival. The Registrar also took time to speak to students at Hagita Secondary School about political parties. The audience at Cameron Secondary was disrupted by the law and order issue that engulfed Alotau soon after the Kenu Festival.

During the Kenu Festival, the Registry on behalf of the political parties enlisted a good number of membership for the different political parties. As indicated in Table 3, the following political parties had membership enlisted in Alotau;

Table 3: Membership Registration during the Kenu Festival in Alotau

Political Party	Male	Female	Total
People’s National Congress	20	6	26
Pangu	12	0	12
Allegiance	7	3	10
National Alliance	3	4	7
People’s Progress Party	5	1	6
National Party	2	4	6
Christian Democratic	1	4	5
People’s Democratic Movement	4	0	4
PNG Party	4	0	4
Our Development Party	3	0	3
People’s Movement for Change	4	0	4
Social Democratic Party	2	0	2
United Party	2	0	2
People’s Labour Party	0	1	1
PNG One Nation	1	0	1
Melanesian Liberal Party	0	1	1
Wantok in Godly Services	1	0	1
United Resources Party	1	0	1
Grassroots United Front	1	0	1
Total	73	24	97

The above table shows how many males and females enlisted as members of political parties for the 3 days the Registry was in Alotau. The number definitely would increase if the membership drive is also done in other districts in Milne Bay, however that is the responsibility for each political party to undertake. It is not the duty of the Registry to do this. The membership forms taken in Alotau will be given to the respective parties to enter into their membership databases (that’s if they have any) and for them to make contact with their members in Alotau.

Conclusion

It is from such activities undertaken by the Registry of Political Parties that would provide some degree of predictability especially when it comes to the support a party would receive in a particular district in the country. This kind of work undertaken by the Registry is therefore important not only to the parties but to the Registry when it goes about in conducting its awareness on political parties.

It has to be emphasised here that the role of registering membership is the sole responsibility for the political parties. The Registry is kick starting this process on behalf of the parties but it is the parties that must keep this process going until the next election.

The figures given for each political party that had members signed up in Bogia and Sumkar and in Alotau would act as a guide to the support base for a party. It is up to the parties to exploit this to their advantage.

For the Registry, it will keep its awareness program going until 2022 and along the way would continue to register membership on behalf of political parties so as to indicate the support base of political parties in districts throughout Papua New Guinea.