Meeting with Transparency International (PNG).

By Solomon Puana The Registry of Political Parties has been a key partner to the Transparency International – Papua New Guinea (TIPNG) as it has continuously offered its technical assistance to TIPNG’s work on the parallel report on the country’s implementation of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC).

The UNCAC was adopted in 2003 and was enforced in 2005 and is the first legally binding anti-corruption agreement applicable on a global basis. Under the UNCAC, all member states of governments are to provide a report or review on the implementation and fulfilment of obligations on a multi-year periodic basis. The TIPNG has been engaged by the UNCAC Coalition to provide the parallel report on behalf of the PNG Government to ensure accountability and transparency of the review process.
On Wednesday 24th February 2021, the Registry met with TIPNG’s Representative, Mr. Yambari Haihuie who is the Deputy Director Partnerships and Policy. The meeting was held in Pala Conference Room at the Office of the Registry of Political Parties. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss and complete a set of questions in line with Article 7 and 8 of the UNCAC which Papua New Guinea acceded to in 2007. The Registry was identified has one of the key agencies to the UNCAC report as its mandate and work meets the objectives of Article 7 and 8 of the UNCAC which relates to political financing. Other relevant agencies will also be interviewed for their views to finalize the report and published.

Women’s Mentoring & Awareness on Political Parties Program in Milne Bay Province.

By Solomon Puana

The Registry of Political Parties has taken on board the issue of women in political leadership. After the 2017 National Election, the Registry made a commitment and that was to support and promote Women in Political Leadership through its awareness program on Political Parties. In November 2020, the Registry began implementations by conducting the first pilot project on Women’s Mentoring and Awareness on Political Parties program with the support of United Nation Development Programme (UNDP) and UN Women in selected areas of Milne Bay Province based on the size of LLGs and population. The following areas included Alotau in the Alotau Urban LLG, Samarai Ward in Bwanabwana LLG and Taupota Ward in the Maramatana LLG.
The focus of the program was for the Registry of Political Parties to educate and empower women leaders who intend to contest the 2022 national and the LLG elections and at the same time to inform them about the roles and importance of political parties in any democracy like Papua New Guinea. The first official program was held at Alotau International Hotel, Bagi Conference Center with an attendance of 32 women and only 1 man. The second program was held on the Island of Samarai of Bwanabwana LLG in the Samarai-Murua District which had a good turnout, at least 20 women and 3 men in attendance. The final program was conducted at Taupota in the Maramattana LLG. We had about more than 20 people (20 women and 5 men) who attended and participated. It was good that of the 5 men, the current and former Ward Councilors were present during the awareness.

During the entire awareness program, there were issues and concerns raised in relation to women in political leadership and these included: Lack of support by political parties to women candidates in terms of logistics and finances; lack of women support; lack of funding to women representatives at the sub-national and this has been a big issue and challenge; and lack of presents of political parties in the districts.

Despite the issues and concerns raised many people especially the women folks commended the work Registry was doing in terms of supporting and promoting women. Many have expressed similar views by saying that the program has given them confidence and they now know exactly what to expect and strategies how to overcome challenges. Beside this membership forms were distributed to interested individuals who wanted to join a political party and a total of 41 memberships where collected. Also the Team had four interested women leaders who intend to contest the 2022 elections got registered by filling in the registration forms.

Women’s Mentoring and Awareness on Political Parties in West New Britain Province.

By Solomon Puana

The Mentoring Women and Awareness on Political Parties Program for 2020 ended in West New Britain Province (WNBP). This time it was without the support and assistance of United Nation Development Programme (UNDP) and UN Women. The Registry in its efforts conducted the program in WNBP from 7th to 11th December 2020. The program was held in four different locations where people especially the women turned up in numbers. The first mentoring women and awareness on political parties program was conducted in Kimbe, the second in Bialla Town, the third in Hoskins and the fourth was in Valoka village. Of the 22 provinces, WNBP was one of the two provinces that had no women candidates contesting the 2017 National Election. The Registry saw that there was a need for an awareness on political parties and mentoring women to be conducted in WNBP to encourage and give confidence to the women. During the entire 4 days program in the four areas of WNBP in which the Registry visited. The Registry was amazed with the interest and turn out of the people especially the women who attended and participated during the programs conducted in those 4 locations.
The first mentoring and awareness program was held at Genesis Haven conference centre in Kimbe where a total of 47 participants (3 males and 44 females) attended the program. Bialla in the East Nakanai LLG was the second location the Registry visited to conduct the party awareness and mentoring women’s program. The program was held at the Bialla Higher Ground Resource Centre. During the program the Team was privileged to have the President for East Nakanai LLG, Mr. James Laula including the Ward Members and Women Leaders. The Registry had a big turn out where a total of 93 participants (both male and female) attended the program. The third and fourth visits were in Hoskins LLG. The awareness and mentoring program was held at the Hoskins LLG Chamber where a total of 73 participants attended. Beside this the Registry concluded its mentoring and awareness program in Valoka village which was not far from Hoskins Town. The turn-out was also good as many people both men and women including the youths and children were all there to listen to the Team.

The mentoring and awareness program was a success for the Registry as it created a dialogue amongst the women folks. The women in WNBP have expressed their views that this program is a first of kind, in terms of information dissemination. With the presentations and experiences shared by the Registry, they now have come to realize the strength of networking and how effective it can be used to work against money politics. Women in WNBP were not organized and with this program, it has encouraged women to organize and work together at the LLG ward levels so that they can achieve what they want.
During the entire mentoring and awareness program, a total of 46 memberships where enlisted. And also a total of 5 women leaders have put their hands up to contest the 2022 National Election. 3 women intended to contest the Talasea Open Seat while 2 women intended to contest the West New Britain Provincial Seat in 2022 National Election. These are the women that the Registry of Political Parties will be working closely with.

Preparations for the 2022 National Elections

The Registry of Political Parties has outlined its plans to prepare for the 2022 national elections. In 2021, the Registry is rolling out the following activities;
• Awareness on political parties
• Conducting workshops for political parties to prepare them for the 2022 national elections
• Mentoring of women candidates
These are the three main activities for the Registry in 2021. The roll out of these activities however will depend very much on the funding that it will get from the Government.Beside the roll out of these activities, there are a couple of urgent matters that the Registry would like to bring to the attention of the public but more so the Members of Parliament because of their importance to the mandate of the Registry.
The first is the need for the passage of the Revised Organic Law on the Integrity of Political Parties and Candidates (OLIPPAC). The passage of the Revised OLIPPAC has been outstanding since 2013. In 2021, the National Executive Council in its NEC decisions approved the Revised OLIPPAC and it has been gazette and with Parliament now for distribution. Historically, the passage of the OLIPPAC was one of the significant reforms passed under the Leadership of the late Prime Minister Sir Mekere Morauta. It totally transformed the political landscape in the country. Due to the Supreme Court decision of 2010 which nullified certain provisions of the Law, the OLIPPAC therefore was revised. The Revision of the OLIPPAC started in 2013 up until now awaiting debate and passage on the floor of Parliament.
We are now in 2021, the Registry is working around the clock to get the Revised OLIPPAC to be deliberated this year before the 2022 national elections. The approval by NEC in 2020 is a positive step in moving the Revised OLIPPAC forward therefore the Registry is asking the Government to put the Revised Law on the agenda of Parliament this year.
The second issue that the Registry is now confronted with is the recent joining of small parties by MPs. While it is the prerogative of the MPs to make such decision and action, these small parties did not win any seats in the 2017 national elections and have become targets for MPs who want to become leaders of political parties. The result of MPs joining these small parties is counterproductive to the view of the Registry who want to see parties winning seats in national elections rather than parties getting MPs through such practice. It defeats the whole purpose of having strong parties with strong policies that attracts support from the people during elections rather than MPs joining these small parties at their own convenience.
An important consideration too to this practice is that these small parties would become “one man parties” and the executives would be on public payroll with the Presidents and Treasurers receiving monthly stipends and the General Secretaries receiving fortnightly salaries. These are executives who failed to work hard in winning seats in elections but now will be on payroll due to a MP joining their party. The cost of stipends and salaries is another additional costs to the public finance.
The Registry is now looking at this matter to discourage MPs from making such decisions due to the costs involved and more so undermining the ability of the party executives to work extra hard to win seats during the elections.

PNG TOPS COUNTRIES IN THE COMMONWEALTH ON CAMPAIGN FINANCE REGULATION

By Dr Alphonse Gelu
The Registrar, Dr Alphonse Gelu attended a meeting in London organized by the Commonwealth Secretariat from February 10th to February 12th, 2020. The meeting was attended by 16 countries in the Commonwealth and to discuss how the countries have legislated in this area and how effective it was in their respective countries.
For many of the countries that attended, they have come up with various laws and measures to address campaign finance however many have failed in passing the laws in their respective Parliaments. Jamaica and South Africa are the only other two countries that have laws in place but for Papua New Guinea, the OLIPPAC outlined clearly what is campaign finance and the need to comply in terms of disclosure both by the candidates and the political parties.
The Registrar while addressing the meeting mentioned that there are still challenges that needed close scrutiny and some of these had been captured in the Revised OLIPPAC. But from this experience and knowledge, it was something positive for Papua New Guinea and its Leaders who were determined to institute legislative regulations to ensure that money used in the elections are “clean money” and were used for the intended purpose. The need to disclose the money is also an important step to ensuring that transparency is nurtured and maintain in the election process in the country.

Political Parties & their Policies

By Dr Alphonse Gelu
I as the Registrar, felt obliged to respond to these letters by pointing out certain aspects of the nature of political parties in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and to highlight the issues on the number of parties and the effectiveness of the parties. For the concerned individuals that raised these issues, it is important to firstly understand what kind of democracy PNG is a part of.

Democracy is a relative term to describe the status of a country according to the adaptation of a country according to the adaptation of major elements of democracy and how these elements of democracy and how these elements are internationalized in our country. The same goes for other countries that see themselves as being democratic. The major tenants of democracy included; free and fair elections, civil and political rights, civil and political rights, civil society and transparency and accountable government. These tenants of democracy basically covers the main areas that would make a particular country democratic or not and this can be done through the now famous audit of democracy, a tool that has been used widely determine the extent and level of democracy within a particular country.

Many scholars has also given and written about other tenants of democracy which included pluralism, universal suffrage, responsible and accountable government, etc. For PNG, we are known as a “developing democracy” which implies that our democracy is still developing. We have not reached the mature state of democracy that some other countries enjoys. Our institutions are still developing ur system of government is still developing our elections still needs major improvements rights and freedoms of our citizens still needed protections our people still need to be empowered information needs to be available to our peoples our system has to promote inclusiveness etc and of course as relative to our discussion, our party system still weak and fragile.

A weak and fragile political party system is a major feature of a developing democracy which PNG fits in very well. The party system that we have has features that clearly shows a need for more improvement to our party system. Some of the features of our party system includes; no membership base throughout the country; Port Moresby based; executives ineffective; not visible throughout the country; exclusive organization with little membership of women; weak party structures; weak constitutions; no loyalty from its members especially in Parliament; controlled by one person; does not have adequate funding, parties not factor that influence voter choices; policies are weak; and no clear ideological stand etc.

These factors have greatly affected the effectiveness of political parties in the country. Looking at the trend of party development, we started off with a few political parties in the 1970s but now have more parties in the country. Currently we have 46 registered political parties and 22 of them have MPs in Parliament while the rest do not. Many that don’t have MPs had contested elections since 2002, 2007, 2012 and 2017 and have not won any seats. Some do not endorse candidates in the elections but request winning candidates to join them. Some even endorse only one person as a candidate. Some of these practices employed by political parties in PNG defeats the whole purpose of forming political parties in the first instance.

The motives behind the registration of these parties are not clear and based on some parochial values and outcomes. The dilemma the Registry of Political Party faces is that our Constitution allows for citizens to form or belong to or not belong to political parties as stipulated in Section 47; Fredom of Assembly and Association. As a result of this, the registry has allowed citizens to form political parties which have seen a drastic increase in the number of political parties.

The Organic Law on the Integrity of Political Parties and Candidates (OLIPPAC 2003) has even contributed to the rise of political parties due to the provisions recognizing a political party once it goes through the normal processes/ procedures for registration. The registry is very much aware of the increase in the number of political parties and has instituted number of measures to address this. One of this is encouraging smaller parties to amalgamate as allowed in the law. In the Revised OLIPPAC (2017) that would be going before the National Executive Council (NEC) by the end of the year, the registry has inserted new provisions that would indirectly decrease the number of parties. This include making parties to endorse 10 percent of candidates from the total number of seats in Parliament endorsing 20 percent of women candidates, enlisting 2000 membership throughout the country, establishing four regional party branches, renewal of registration after every two years, keep a database of membership and the registry to check on this etc..

These are measures that if parties do not comply with, they will end up being deregistered thus, decreasing the number of political parties in the country. In terms of registering a new political party, the registry allows citizens to this but in recent yeas have developed this approach of requesting the individuals intending to form a new party to submit five of its main policies which must be different from the existing registered political parties. This practice has made many people to walk away because they could not identify five policies that are different from existing 40 plus political parties. The registry is therefore working on this issue in terms of the numbers of political parties. But one thing for sure that many people do not understand is that for many countries who are democratic have far more political parties than PNG despite them having a two party system.

In terms of working closely with political parties to address the inherent weaknesses in the party system, the registry since 2013 implemented a programme called “Learning and development workshops”. This is a capacity building programme that the registry initially partnered with the Center for Democratic Institute (CDI) based at the Australian National University (ANU). Trainers were brought in to facilitate training for the party executives. In 2015, the registry did this on its own with the registrar as the main trainer of facilitator for the programme. This programme ran on a quarterly basis from 2013 to 2017 up to the national elections. Many party executives benefited from this programme and its was all funded from the budget of the registry. The training that the registry ran included; importance of parties in a democracy, party systems, strengthening party structures, roles of the executives, book/accounts keeping, developing relevant party policies, purpose of party conventions, use of volunteers, importance of enlisting membership, establishing women and youth wings, campaign strategies, fund raising, endorsement of candidates and so on. All aspects of strengthening parties and building the capacities of the party executives were all covered.

The registry was well supported by the Liberal Party Australia and the Australia Labor Party (ALP). But it was the ALP that assisted the registry to cover the entire learning and development programme for political parties. They brought in party officials from the different states in Australia to share their experience in managing their political parties. To conclude, the registry is very much aware the number of political parties in the country. The registry is working to address this issue through the OLIPPAC but more so with the Revised OLIPPAC that once it is approved by the NEC would indirectly have impact on the number of parties in the country. At the same time, the registry has workd closely with all the parties, those with Mps and those without Mps in rolling out capacity building programmes. The executives have benefited from those programmes and many are using what they learned to help improve their parties and also improve their duties.

The registry has other programmes that it had identified through its annual work plans and will roll out however the registry does face massive financial constraints to roll out its activities especially in the areas of district awareness on political parties and secondly on the mentoring of women candidates in preparation for the 2022 national elections.

Information on Parties and MPs now online

The registry of Political Parties recently launched its Parties and Members of Parliament (PAMPS) app as part of its awareness program. In 2016 the Registry conducted a survey on the perception of people about political parties including an observation of the 2017 national elections, found that not a lot of people know much about Political Parties in the country. This prompted the Registry to begin a serious of awareness campaign starting in 2017 straight after the national election. The Registry conducted numerous awareness activities that involved road shows, visitation to educational institutions in provinces, district awareness and cultural show participation. In launching the PAMPS app, the Registrar, Dr Alphonse Gelu explained that PAMPS did not cost the registry any money. “It is the initiative of the staff who developed PAMPS as an option to getting people to know more of the political parties.” He further encouraged the general public to be members of political parties. “This would allow parties to have a solid foundation in which they will stand on in pursuing their aspiration to form Government.” This app compliments the ongoing awareness activities that is currently underway. It is targeted at mobile device users. These are mostly school aged pupils, professionals and general public as a whole. It is an informative app that aims to provide information about; All registered (46) Political parties and their contacts, Total number of MPs under each Political Party, MPs and the parties they are affiliated to, Party executives & their contact, General Party information, policies and visions. The app is free to download and is available on the Registry’s website: www.ippcc.gov.pg