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| Registrar, Dr Alphonse Gelu |
Papua New Guinea
is part of the global family that adopted democracy as its ideology. As such
pluralism is one of the defining features of democracy. Pluralism describes a
system whereby the center of power is not confined to only one source but is
scattered among different competing sources.
In democracies,
the State is just one of the sources of power and has to compete with other
sources which are equally powerful and important to politics. In mature
democracies, the trade union movement or workers movement are equally powerful,
as well as the business community and other pressure groups such as those on
environment, the entertainment industry, the sporting community, etc are
equally powerful. Political parties are also important sources of power as a
result of their policies that gather support and mobilise the people to vote
for their policies.
In Papua New
Guinea, the State has to compete with other sources of power mainly the tribal
groupings that we have as well as landowner groups and so forth. Tribal
groupings become had powerful during elections and the manner in which they
mobilise themselves makes them equally powerful against the police and military
that provides security during the elections.One important
source of power that needs greater recognition is the political parties in the
country. Why it is important then to promote political parties in the country
to make them relevant and meaningful to the people?
A very simple
answer to that is because political parties according to the Organic Law on the
Integrity of Political Parties and Candidates (OLIPPAC) form governments in the
country. That has been evident after the 2002, 2007, 2012 and the 2017 national
elections. The people of this country must now know that when the country goes
for the election, they would be voting for a party to form the government –
thus, that is the party that would win the majority of the 111 seats in
Parliament.
Beside parties
forming governments in the country, other reasons why it is important to
promote political parties in the country include;
- parties are weak on many fronts - structures, membership,
funds, loyalty. These areas needed to be strengthen.
- parties can be the mouth piece for the people if they are
strong and meaningful to the people
- parties can be held accountable by the people in terms of their
performance in office and the outcomes of their policies
- parties have been around since the 1960s and have not developed
to an expected level to make them strong institutions
- parties being responsible for instability and weak governments.
Once strengthened they can become institutions that would maintain strong
and responsible executive governments
- parties are democratic institutions that should represent the
interests of all the citizens including the women
An important
question that the people must ask themselves is, "are they voting for a
party that would form the government or are they just voting anyone of their
choices?" From empirical evidence, it is the second proposition that
describe the reality of voting in Papua New Guinea. The people cast their
preferences on whoever they think is their candidate of their choice. Hence the
people's mandate stops there. It does not extend into which party should form
the government. The formation of the government is the elected MPs sole doing
and the people have no say over that. This act of voting behaviour also renders
parties irrelevant to the people. There is a need to now make the political
parties in the country relevant.
The formation of
governments is an area that needs greater scrutiny and improvement in the
country. The mandate given to a party must come from the people and not by the
elected MPs themselves.
It is because of
this reality, that the Registry of Political Parties in the last 4 to 6 years
has been working hard to promote the political parties in the country.
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| Party executives in a L&D workshop hosted by the Registry |
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The first
initiative the Registry undertook was the rollout of the Learning and
Development Workshop. This was an initiative targeting the General Secretaries
of the political parties. The General Secretaries are the key personnel within
parties and the plan was implemented to build their capacities in managing
their parties effectively. The plan was rolled out from 2013 to 2017. A total
of over 2 million Kina was used to train the party's General Secretaries. The
General Secretaries were the recipients of the training because those that have
MPs in Parliament are on fortnightly salary. The training was initiated to make
them learn new skills and to implement them and most importantly for them to
rightfully earn their salaries. The plan was initially facilitated by the
Center for Democratic Institutions based at the Australian National University
(ANU) from 2013 to 2015 and was later taken over by the Registrar as the main
facilitator. The topics covered in the plan enriched many of the General
Secretaries. They ranged from designing and reviewing party policies, selection
of candidates, support for women candidates, raising funds, basic book keeping,
roles of parties, how to prepare well for elections, campaign plans, campaign
strategies, voting system, etc. The Australian Labour Party became the main partner
in this initiative. The Liberal Party also came on board on several occasions.
Beside these 2 parties from Australia, the UNDP also assisted financially in a
number of forums.
The second
initiative was the design and roll out of the theme, "Know Your
Party" "Vote Your Party". This initiative was the beginning of
the actual promotion of political parties in the country. A number of
activities followed from this theme;
- printing of flags party flags
- printing of information on all the registered parties -
leaders, policies, addresses, etc
- printing of party logos
- printing of booklets on political parties, candidates,
registration of parties, policies of parties, mandate of the Registry and
other promotional items.
The third initiative
was the use of the radio to promote the political parties. The Registry went
into partnership with the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) to promote
political parties. Air time was given to party leaders to promote their
parties. This activity took place a year before the 2017 national election.
The fourth
initiative was the roll out of the Political Party Expos. The first took place
in November 2017 in Port Moresby. All parties were invited but only about 15
took part. The main aim of the expo is to allow the parties to make them
visible to the public and to allow the public to sign up as members of the
parties. A number of party leaders turned up to support their parties - Sir
Julius Chan, Hon Patrick Pruaitch, Hon Garry Juffa, and Hon Bryan Krammer, and
Hon Sam Basil.
The second party
expo took place in Madang in June 2018, again a number of parties joined the
Registry in the expo. The expo in Madang was attended by Hon Peter Yama and Hon
Bryan Krammer. The third party expo was held in Lae in June 2018 and former
Governors for Morobe, Hon Kelly Naru and Hon Luther Wenge also attended. The
Chief of Staff for the Prime Minister's Office, Mr Eddie Jondi Mike also
attended. The expos in Madang and Lae were funded by the UNDP office based in
Suva with support from the UNDP office in Port Moresby. These 2 expos also
allowed the public to sign up as members of the parties that were present.
The new theme
the Registry developed after the 2017 election is "Know A Party"
"Join A Party". The aim of this theme is to allow and get the people
to know the political parties and to join the parties as financial members.
Parties needed a support base of supporters to be in a better position to win
votes and seats in elections.
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| Registrar giving a presentation with the theme "Know a Party, Join a Party" |
Prior to the
party expo in Lae, a forum was organised jointly by the Registry and the UNDP
Suva Office for the parties in supporting women contesting the national
elections and the LLG Elections. Experts were brought in from New Zealand,
Fiji, and the Netherlands to share their experiences with the officials present
and the women participants.
The fifth and
the most recent initiative undertaken by the Registry to promote political
parties is the district awareness on political parties. The first district
awareness took place in Sumkar and Bogia in October/November 2018. The staff
from the Registry visited the different communities in the 2 districts and
conducted awareness on the importance of parties, roles of parties and
information on parties in the country. The staff were also able to recruit
supporters on behalf of parties which were handed over to the parties to enlist
in their database.
In November of
2018, a number of staff including the Acting Registrar attended the Kenu-Kundu
Festival in Alotau to promote political parties and handed out information on
parties to the public. The Registry also managed to enlist membership for the
parties. The Acting Registrar appeared on NBC Milne Bay to promote the visit in
Alotau and also took time to speak to students at Hagita Secondary School.
All the initiatives
that the Registry has rolled out since 2013 up to now is to promote political
parties in the country. The main aim of this initiative is to strengthen the
relationship between the people, the parties and the formation of the
government. This initiative requires a transformation in the attitude and values
of the people by making the people to think more about parties rather than on
the candidates. This would allow the people to have direct control and say on
which party should form the government rather than leaving this process to the
elected MPs.
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| Mr Gawi of PUA and Ms Grant of NA doing activities in the L& D Workshop |
The biggest
challenge for the Registry is the funding from the government. The funding has
not been coming and this is the biggest problem faced by the Registry. The
rational of making political parties relevant through the promotional
activities of the Registry is a process that should be of interest to all. The
Registry is only attempting to strengthen the law relating to the formation of
the government and how the people should have a say in the formation of
governments in the country.
Another
important challenge is for the party leaders and followers to believe in the
party. They cannot only do this during elections, but all throughout the life
span of the party. They must show commitment to the party and to support the
party in its outreach programs. They must not wait for someone else to tell
them what to do. They have to do things on their own accord and initiative.
I have spoken
about the electoral cycle – the next election is in 2022, political parties
must now be halfway into whatever activities they are doing to promote
themselves. We cannot continue to be complacent but to become active in
promoting our parties.
As the Registry
sees it, there is no positive sign coming out from the 45 political parties.
Only a couple have had their conventions after the 2017 national election. The
rest have not and this is disappointing. How would they know what happened in
the 2017 election? Should the executives remain or should there be changes? Is
the policies of the party relevant? These are issues that needs to be dealt
with in the conventions.
There is still a
greater need for parties to expose themselves in the country. Parties must
become relevant to the people. The people must know about them and the parties
must continue to show themselves. This would bring about positive signs to the
political development of our country and to which the Registry is committed to.