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Kila Poka, General Secretary for PNG Party with mentors
Solomon Puana and Jacinta Rakuafery |
By Claudio Labeli
After the 2017 general election, the Registry decided to
changes its approach in training political parties. This was due to the
observations by the Registry on a survey conducted in 2016 and the election
observation of the 2017 National General Elections. A major finding was that
political parties were still unknown to vast majority of the population and did
not have influence when it comes to voting hence, voters do not vote for
parties.
In June 2018 selected Registry staff underwent an intensive
one week “train the trainer” program facilitated by the Australian Labor Party
(ALP) officials. The training saw 15 staff successfully completing the trainers
program. Each staff were put into pairs and allocated four political parties
each to mentor. This saw the first mentoring program began in late September
2018 with one session held for the year.
This approach anticipates to see more interactions between
the trainers and the party executives whereby a lot more questions and answers
are exchanged. The training is targeted for the General Secretary and the
Presidents of each parties. Four sessions will be conducted on a quarterly
basis every year till 2021. A training manual is currently been developed for
this mentoring program by the ALP and the Registry.
The Registrar is pleased with the mentoring so far which
allowed party executives to have me to one contact with mentors who are staff
of the Registry.