Finalisation of the Revised OLIPPAC

By Solomon Puana
After completing the process of conducting a nationwide consultations on the Revised OLIPPAC from 20th May to 15th July 2019, the Registry took a week off to Alotau from 01st to 08th August 2019 to finalise the draft Revised OLIPPAC at the Masurina Conference Centre. The team comprised of 11 staff from the Registry which included the Registrar who led the team, Mr John Bishop, Mr Emmanuel Pok, Mr Ila Pala, Ms Marie Fraghi, Mr Claudio Labeli, Mr Kennedy Pais, Ms Madeline Saga, Mr William Garena, Mr Anton Napia and Mr Solomon Puana to put together the Revised OLIPPAC. The purpose of the trip to Alotau was to keep away from distractions and concentrate on finalizing the draft as it is important for the Registry to submit the final draft to NEC and Parliament before the next Parliament Seating which will be held in November, 2019. The main aim of the Registry is for the Revised OLIPPAC to be passed before 2022 so that the Organic Law can be tested in the coming election and at the same time for the Registry to effectively carry out its operations in managing the political party’s affairs.
On 02nd August 2019, the Registrar went through with the team on the revised OLIPPAC, section by section and the changes proposed to be inserted in the revised OLIPPAC. While going the through the revised OLIPPAC, the views of the people were also considered in the proposed changes in the Revised OLIPPAC.
On 03rd August, Mr Pais presented the data collected on the proposed changes. While cross checking the data against the proposed changes that were already inserted in the revised OLIPPAC, the team had to agree with the final changes to finalise the draft revised OLIPPAC. On 04th August, the team continued on with finalising the Administration Act Bill and the Regulations of the Bill. On the 05th and 06th August, the team was put into four groups to work on the whole package of the revised OLIPPAC.

The Registrar and Mr Bishop worked on the Administrative Act Bill. Mr Pok and Mr Puana worked on the Drafting Instruction, Explanatory Notes, the First Reading and the NEC Submission of the Constitutional Amendments. Mr Pais, Mr Garena and Ms Saga worked on the Drafting Instructions, Explanatory Notes, the First, second and third Readings of the Revised OLIPPAC. Mr Pala and Ms Fraghi worked on the Regulation Bill and Forms of the Revised OLIPPAC. All in all, the work on finalizing the draft Revised OLIPPAC has been a success with the proposed changes been inserted considering the views and the data collected from the people during the nationwide consultations in the country. The Registry now is in the final stages of putting together all necessary documents with the proposed Constitutional Amendments and the draft Revised OLIPPAC to be submitted to the National Executive Council and Parliament for its approval and passing of the Bill.

Key areas in strengthening political parties in PNG

By Dr Alphonse Gelu
The Registry since its establishment in 2001 has worked hard in strengthening political parties in the country. The most important step taken by the Registry was firstly by creating a conducive environment in which the Registry and the various political parties can conduct their business. In 2012, this relationship developed into new heights when programs were identified by the Registry to build the capacity of the party executives. This resulted in the roll out of the Learning and Development Plan. The Plan saw the Registry conducting 4 workshops in year starting in 2013 to 2017. Political party executives benefited from these trainings which started off with the Centre for Democratic Institutions (CDI) facilitating and later the Registry through the Registrar taking over the facilitation from 2015 to 2017.
In 2018, the mentoring plan was introduced to replace the Learning and Development Plan. The mentoring was cheaper as it did not cost the Registry funds to conduct such trainings and also the mentoring enabled the party executives to have a one to one dialogue with mentors who were all staff of the Registry.

At the end of the mentoring sessions, each mentors write short briefs about the mentoring and the issues discussed with the party executives. The Australian Labour Party (ALP) provided training for the staff to become mentors or trainers. The Registrar provides guidelines for every mentoring sessions that take place quarterly.
Despite the roll out of these programs, the Registry is still keen to provide further support to the political parties. These support is to strengthen the parties and to make them known to the people. What are some key areas that are critical to the strengthening of political parties in Papua New Guinea? The following are the critical areas that must be done mostly by the political parties themselves to strengthen them: Membership Drive
This is an area that the Registry has continuously reminded political parties to do. In 2013, a template was developed by the Registry to assist political parties to maintain a database on the membership of political parties. Unfortunately to date, this area has not been seriously embraced by the political parties. It is a concern to the Registry that parties are not taking heed of this direction from the Registry. Revise Party Constitution The party constitutions are important for all political parties. They all have constitutions but the Registry is working with political parties to ensure that what they have in place is a constitution that takes into account all the aspect of running and managing a political party. It has come out that some parties do not have constitutions that adequately addressed certain areas and this was evident when there were internal disputes that arose.
Revise Party Policies Parties have been asked to revise their policies after every elections. Parties have not done this despite the calls made by the Registry. Parties must know that policies should drive the support during the elections. If parties failed to receive support during the elections, then the policies have not worked to attract the support.
It is common knowledge that voters do not vote for policies during the elections in Papua New Guinea. And political parties do not campaign on policies. This is the reality but from the Registry’s perspective, this can and need to change. Political parties must inform the people about their policies. The policies must become the decisive element in the casting of preferences.
Develop Work Plans Political parties as organisations must have their annual work plans in place. The Registry has reminded the parties since 2013 to do this, however many have failed to provide their annual work plans to the Registry. Even worse is the parties that are in Parliament and those that are in government. The Registry has no idea what these parties planned to achieve annually and what activities they would be involved in and how much it would cost them to do this.
The work plans would show the Registry and members of the party what the party envisage to roll out in a year. Without these then the Registry is truly in the dark on what the parties are doing and with the assumption that the parties are not doing anything at all. This assumption does not help the case of the Registry putting a stop to payments of certain allowances to the General Secretaries because the Registry strongly feel that the General Secretaries do not deserve these kind of payments for doing nothing.
Awareness Awareness is the key activity that would really change the people’s perception about political parties in the country. Parties and their leaders need to visit villages, sleep and talk with the villages and inform them about national issues and what the government is doing. The reality is that there is no attachment between the government, political parties and the people. There is a deep divide between the parties and the people resulting in parties having little success in elections.
Strengthen relationship between parliamentary wing and non-parliamentary wing The relationship between these two groups is important to strengthening political parties in terms of maintaining unity and standing togather to address issues confronting the party. Recently a number of parties have fallen prey to disagreements and led to disintegration in party membership and unity. Both groups have to respect each other’s mandate and create an environment that would contribute positively to the interests of the party.
Raise funds for the party Funds is critical for political parties. Political parties in the country are poor and lack the funding that is required to do other important things to strengthen the parties. The parties have to be innovative and creative on how to raise funds for themselves. Failure to do this would contribute to them remaining within the status quo. This is not beneficial at all for the parties.
Give equal attention to women as party members and those that have potentials to succeed in elections Making political parties inclusive is also critical to party development in the country. Political parties must take this agenda on board and be serious about it. Women are equal partners to men and political parties must have in place plans and programs to lure support from the women and provide support for the women. Parties need to mobilise the women because they are voters themselves and they can make a difference to the election outcome.
The Registry has tried its best to work with political parties to promote women within their organisations and would continue to do this.From the Registry of Political Parties, the above are the critical areas in strengthening political parties in the country. The responsibility to achieve and to plan these areas is the sole responsibility for the political parties themselves. They must seriously embrace these areas.

MSG & International IDEA Forum

By Madeline Saga
The Melanesian Spearhead Group Secretariat (MSGS) and the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) jointly organised a Forum in Honiara, Solomon Islands on the 17th of September 2019 . This event was held in conjunction with the UNDP’s Pacific Regional Conference on Inclusive Political Parties (18-19 September 2019). The Forum was attended by Dr Alphonse Gelu and Madeline Saga from the Registry and a number of party executives including Joyce Grant, Morris Tovebae and Grand Chief Ila Geno. Dr Gelu was invited to speak about Papua New Guinea’s (PNG) experiences on maintaining democracy. He outlined the relationship with IDEA back in 2015 to conduct a democratic assessment for PNG. The discussions with IDEA on promoting democracy were not new to the Registry.

The Forum was intended to provide an opportunity for the two organisations – MSG Secretariat and International IDEA to pronounce their partnership which was recently established. In the Forum both organisations introduced the contents of their Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), presented their joint work plan and received and took note of comments and suggestions from the participants who were all from the MSG member countries that include Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Fiji.
The Forum covered in detail the introduction to the MoU and the 2019-2020 Work Plan. On the part of International IDEA, Ms. Leena Rikkila Tamang, the Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific gave an introduction about her organisations Key Expertise and Prospects for Melanesia. This included International IDEA’s tools, data and knowledge resources and how best they may be relevant to Melanesia.
Participants of the Melanesian countries that also included Political Party representatives were grouped into their countries and were given the opportunity to make presentations based on these discussion topics involving Democracy education for young people, crucial issues for democracy research, Election Observation and addressing challenges and solutions to Melanesian women’s participation in politics. Based on these topics, each participating country was asked to:

* Comment on the relevance of the topic in Melanesian context
* Identify how (through what activities) the topics could be carried out by MSGS and IDEA at the regional level
* Identify any necessary changes in behaviours, relationships and practices for the topic to be successfully conducted.
As a result of these presentations of the member countries, both the MSGS and International IDEA have vowed to ensure to make contact with the participating organisations as the beginning of this work plan of 2019-2020.
The Registry was pleased to be a part of this forum as it is through this forum that has given awareness of other regional institutions within Melanesia who are able to jointly fund activities that the Registry intends to implement in the next four years. As a result of this forum the Registry has identified key areas that would be relevant for this support from the MSGS and IDEA. The Registry looks forward to maintaining an open dialogue that will form a stronger interaction with other Melanesian countries that will lead to a strong regional relationship within Asia and the Pacific including Australia and New Zealand and their political parties.

2nd mentoring session for 2019

By William Garena
The Mentoring Approach is a new initiative and is one of two flagship programs identified in the Registry’s Corporate Plan 2018-2022. The mentoring approach entails a series of quarterly sessions which began in November 2018 and will continue to 2021. The aim of the sessions is to build the capacity of party executives where designated staffs of the Registry will act as mentors in mentoring and coaching party executives about some basic knowledge of what political parties are, and what their responsibilities are as executives. The sessions take an interactive approach between mentors and executives of political parties and target Presidents and General-Secretaries of political parties. The 2019 second quarterly mentoring session took place at the Registry’s Bengo Conference Centre in Port Moresby from 19th – 21st March 2019. From the 45 registered political parties only 9 parties attended the second quarterly mentoring session. Political parties that attended included: United Resources Party (URP); Papua New Guinea National Party (PNGNP); Papua and Niu Guinea Union Party (PANGU Party); Papua New Guinea Party (PNG Party); Triumph Heritage Empowerment Party (T.H.E Party); Grassroots United Front Party (G.R.U.F Party); and Papua New Guinea Greens Party (PNG Greens Party). Only two parties without Members of Parliament (i.e. G.R.U.F Party and PNG Greens Party) attended while the remaining seven parties had Members in Parliament.

For this quarter’s mentoring session, political parties were expected to give feedback on critical areas related mostly to the general administration of parties and their daily operations. These critical areas included: 2019 LLG Election preparations; Membership Recruitment and Membership fees; Party Conventions after the 2017 National Elections; 2019 Annual Activity Plan; and Support to Women. Also mentors took time to update party executives on important ongoing activities by the Registry such as the status of the revised OLIPPAC, entitlements for General-Secretaries and the Training Manual for party executives.
Throughout the session it was noted that most political parties did not plan to put up candidates for the 2019 LLG Elections. This was due to the lack of fundraising initiatives by parties to raise enough funds to support their LLG election preparations. The financial challenges experienced by most parties also prevented them to conduct awareness throughout the country in making themselves and their party policies known to the people. Another factor that contributed to the lack of focus in preparing for the LLG elections especially for parties with MPs, was the anxiety and uncertainty of the political climate during the vote of no-confidence period. Some issues raised by some party executives during the mentoring session related to the movement of MPs between different political parties, and financial support to maintain their respective party’s daily operations.
The Third Quarter Mentoring Session for 2019 will continue in September at Port Moresby, Bengo Conference Centre. It is hoped that all registered political parties are expected to attend and take ownership of this wonderful initiative provided by the Registry, in promoting and strengthening political parties and democracy in the country.

2019 LLG Elections Observations by the Registry

By Emmanuel Pok
In every LLG elections, the Registry together with other stakeholders conduct an important exercise known as the 'election observation'. In this activity we form special teams to observe the participation of political parties, candidates, voters, supporters and citizens during the campaign, voting and the counting periods. Reports from the election observation teams informs us of the behavior and the way interested groups participate in the elections. Observing the elections thoroughly informs us as policy makers to make informed policy decisions on improving our electoral system.
The Registry's primary role is to ensure that political parties and candidates are well prepared to participate in both the National and Local Level Government elections. The Registry has invested in political parties in the past years to strengthen political parties and preparing them to participate meaningfully in elections. The 2019 Local LLG election was an opportunity where parties could participate and make known of their policies to the voters and also to recruit members to their parties. That was also an opportune time for the Registry to monitor the performance of political parties and their candidates at the very local level and our communities, and make an evaluation that will shape and influence our future work with them. The 2019 LLG Elections was an important election we observed, as it informed us on necessary improvements needed in our electoral laws, voting system and the democratic processes involved in that election. Observation Teams The Registry has initially planned to observe at least three randomly selected LLGs in two provinces of each of the four regions of PNG. However, due to budget shortfalls and other logistical matters, the Registry was able to observe elections in the following LLGs; Region Province District LLG Highlands Western Highlands Hagen, Mul Byier, Tambul Nebliyer Hagen Rural, Hagen Urban, Neblier, Mul Southern Milne Bay Alotau Huhu   Central Kairuku Hiri Kairuku   Oro Soe/Ivijitari Popondetta Urban/Higaturu   Gulf Kerema Malalaua NGI New Ireland Namatanai Namatanai   ENB Rabaul, Gazelle Rabaul Urban, Toma Vuna Didir Momase Madang Madang Madang Urban, Trans Gogol

 Team members were out in the LLGs mainly during campaign periods, as this is the period where parties would freely communicate with their people and campaign for their candidates. A set of questionnaire was prepared and used by all the teams, these were mostly around the participation of the political parties and the participation by women candidates. Individual teams have compiled a detailed report with key observation findings of each LLG they observed. These reports will be compiled into a single report that will be distributed amongst the stakeholders. Some of the mail highlights of the observation are: Political Party presence is yet to be felt at the local level where majority of the population is in the country. Many of the contestants said they were not approached by a political party to contest the seat under a party banner A good number of women were interested to contest the LLG elections, as they believed that this is where they could have a voice. Many were not financial members of a political party. People have a perception that political parties are there to contest the National elections and not for the local level. Observing the LLG election was important because it would provide the Registry the necessary information it needs on the participation of the political parties. It has been stressed to the parties that they need to grow their roots at the village and community level. Their participation at the LLG election is therefore critical for their long term existence as political organizations

Asia Pacific Campaign Forum

By Madeline Saga
A Two day campaign forum conducted by the Australian Labor International was held in Cairns on June 4th and 5th 2019. The purpose of the forum was to gauge views and share experiences of the current political situations and issues of each participating country. A total of 26 participants took part in this event from countries within the Asia Pacific region namely India, Timor Leste, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, Indonesia and Australia. The majority of the participants represented political parties or regulatory organisations such as the Registry of Political Parties.
Elias Hallaj the International Projects officer from the Australian Labor International (ALI) began the first day of the forum by presenting an over view of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and ALI. Each participating country was then given the opportunity to present a summary about their country history and political framework. The assistant national secretary of the ALP, Paul Erickson presented an analysis of the Australian Federal Election followed by Senator Clare Moore who shared her experiences on networking, mentoring and safety valves as a candidate. Participants were also given a greater understanding of the Indonesian electoral voting system and its political party system presented by Ms. Sondang Tampubolonn of the Nesdem Party of Indonesia.

The Registrar Dr Alphonse Gelu began the second day of the forum presenting his paper on building party profiles and party visibility. Elias Hallaj and Paul Erickson then presented with an open forum for discussion on “What makes a Healthy Campaign?” Dr Lesley Clark presented a session on Successful Candidates – learning from and supporting winners. She also shared this session with Dianna Lacy of the New Zealand Labour Party. Andrew Dettmer, National President of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union gave a detained presentation about the Benefits of Training and the Role of Trade Unions respectively and invited participants for an open discussion on these two topics.
The two day forum helped the Registry identify a number of issues that were of significance to both political parties and their candidates here in Papua New Guinea. This included; The Registry to propose mentoring or advice to new Members of Parliament (MP) after the elections through their political parties Create a group for women in politics Keeping track of women candidates, past and intending candidates Invitation to women to include incentive/ fee/ funding Senior members of Parliament to provide mentoring to new MP’s Registry to encourage Political parties for the formation of Parliamentary women’s caucus Annually practice parliament pre-training Encourage Political parties to ensure clear demarcation of Parliamentary leaders and party executives The Registry was also invited to make two separate presentations regarding the party system in PNG and issues surrounding women candidates during the elections. The training was informative for the Registry as it helped identify key areas in terms of party support to women candidates before the elections that need to be addressed. But, most importantly the engagement of parties and their executives with their members and intending candidates. The Registry will announce a similar training to be held in Port Moresby later in the year.

Nationwide Consultation on Organic Law

By Solomon Puana
A Nationwide Consultation of the Revised Organic Law on the Integrity of Political Parties and Candidates (OLIPPAC) was conducted from the 20th May to 15th July 2019. The revised OLIPPAC Consultation was conducted by the staff of the Registry of Political Parties which was led by the Registrar, Dr Alphonse Gelu. The staff were put into eight teams and were sent out to the selected provinces to conduct the Revised OLIPPAC Consultations. The consultations were held in two provinces per region. The consultation team were in the provinces on the following dates: ELECTORATES/PROVINCE CONSULTATION DATES MT HAGEN, WESTERN HIGHLANDS 20th – 25th MAY, 2019 SOUTH WAGHI, JIWAKA PROVINCE 26th – 30th MAY, 2019 KOKOPO, EAST NEW BRITAIN 20th – 27th MAY, 2019 KAVIENG,NEW IRELAND 20th – 27th MAY, 2019 MADANG, MADANG PROVINCE 04th – 14th JUNE, 2019 LAE, MOROBE PROVINCE 03rd – 11th JUNE, 2019 ALOTAU, MILNE BAY PROVINCE 17th – 24th JUNE, 2019 RIGO & BEREINA CENTRAL PROVINCE 08th – 15th JULY, 2019 The consultation was conducted in the form of public forums and meetings which the teams met with two groups of people. The first one was the target groups which comprised mostly of the Provincial Administration or the Provincial Management Team (PMT) and the Civil Society and interest groups which included (Women, Youths, and people with special needs (disabilities), LLG ward Councilors and Presidents and the general public). The second one was the focus groups mostly students from the Secondary Schools (especially Grade Twelves’) and the Tertiary Institutions such as the Universities and Colleges.
The aim of the consultation was for the Registry of Political Parties to engage with the people and inform the people about the OLIPPAC, collect information and their views on the proposed changes of the revised OLIPPAC. Of importance in the consultations, was for the Registry to seek and analyze the views based on the 21 Terms of References (ToRs) to finalize the revised OLIPPAC that reflects or accommodates the views of the people.

The 21 ToRs included: Membership of Political Parties; Salaries and Terms and Conditions of Executives of Political Parties; Establishment of Political Party Offices; Constitution and Agreements by Political Parties; Political Party Policies and Structures; Political Party Disputes; Dissolution and Re-registration of a Political Party; Women Representation and Quota; Eligibility Criteria; Political Party Conventions; Political Party to Candidates; Double Endorsements; Expulsion and Resignation of a Member of a Political Party; Party Leadership; Advise on Formation of Government; Interference with Member of Parliament; Funding to Opposition; Annual Funding to Political Parties; Disclosure of Political Party Fundraising Activities, Annual Returns and Election Returns; and Other matters and issues relating to Political Parties not covered in the ToRs.