Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister James Marape has successfully thwarted a vote of no confidence after 75 MPs backed him and 32 voted for the opposition.

But the session was not without drama.

Just after 10am, after the opposition leader moved a motion for a vote of no confidence announcing Renbo Paita as the alternate prime minister, Parliament Haus descended into momentary chaos as members questioned why Speaker Job Pomat refused to allow debate after the motion.

The opposition had intended to use the opportunity to highlight pressing concerns that caused MPs to move to the opposition.

The Member for Madang, Bryan Kramer, a former minister of justice and police, challenged the Speaker to follow standing orders to the letter as stipulated in the constitution while Wabag MP Lino Tom accused the Speaker of “stifling the people’s voices” by not entertaining debate.

“The people of this country paid our salaries to debate this. The people need to know why we put in a vote of no confidence,” Tom said.

“This is the right forum where our voices need to be heard”

Speaker admits error
After intense exchanges between the chair and the opposition, the Speaker admitted to making an error in parliamentary process.

But he still proceeded to call for a vote.

PNG’s constitution allows a government a grace period of 18 months before a vote of no confidence can be brought to Parliament. Since 1977, every sitting prime minister has had to fend off threats of votes of no confidence.

James Marape himself, came to power in 2018, through a vote of no confidence.

While Prime Minister Marape may have been successful this time, he still faces the possibility of another vote of no confidence if the opposition musters enough numbers to do so.

Speaking after the vote, Marape said that while votes of no confidence were an essential part of democracy, Section 145 of the constitution, which provides for the process, had been abused in many instances.

“Provincial governors have five years to work. Provincial legislators have five years to work. The most important chair of the land has 18 months . . . and managing 18 months of politics and doing work, comes with great cost.”

The pressure is now on him to prove that that he has the ability and the political will to stem instances of corruption, fix the ailing economy, stem inflation and address crime — the biggest concerns for Papua New Guineans.

Over the next few days, the Prime Minister will announce a cabinet reshuffle to fill vacancies left by MPs who have left.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Speaker Job Pomat walked into an empty chamber of Papua New Guinea’s Parliament after the bell was rung about 2pm yesterday, declared a lack of quorum, and left — reportedly disappointed that MPs were late again.

It is understood that government MPs were held up in a caucus meeting nearby, and the opposition MPs were also busy in a meeting.

Clerk to Parliament Kala Aufa told The National newspaper that Parliament had to be adjourned by Pomat because of the lack of quorum.

“Standing orders of Parliament state that sittings must be conducted on a timely basis,” he said.

“The Speaker wants members [MPs] to be on time [punctual].”

Government MPs walked into an empty chamber later after Speaker Pomat had declared it adjourned.

Prime Minister James Marape was advised of the adjournment and sought an audience with Pomat.

Accused of lack of respect
Opposition Leader Belden Namah accused the government MPs of showing no respect to the “people’s house”.

Parliament was expected to resume today at 10am.

Aufa said 10 bills were expected to be tabled and debated.

They include the OLIPAC 2020, Constitutional Amendment (Decentralisation) Law 2020, Medical Registration (Amendment) Bill 2021, MVIL 2021 and KCH Authorisation (Amendment) Bill 2021.

Aufa confirmed that Parliament would sit for two weeks.

Papers are also expected to be tabled by Marape, Minister for Justice Bryan Kramer, and Minister for Civil Aviation Sekie Agisa.

Treasurer Ian Ling-Stuckey is expected to give a ministerial statement on the covid-19 economic response package on expenditure.

Parliament was forced to close in April after some staff members tested positive of the covid-19.

Pandemic Response Controller David Manning advised Pomat in a letter that the matter be treated as a threat to national security .

Manning wanted all staff of Parliament to be tested and the parliamentary premises decontaminated.

Miriam Zarriga is a reporter for The National. Articles are republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Politics in Papua New Guinea has been plunged into more turmoil today, with government MPs continuing to meet while the opposition was out of town, thinking they had adjourned Parliament.

The government MPs passed the Budget, and then made their own adjournment, until next April.

Last Friday, the opposition, bolstered by government MPs crossing the floor, called for an adjournment vote, which they won.

Those MPs, or an estimated 43 of them then travelled to Vanimo, to prepare for a vote of no confidence in Prime Minister James Marape, with that to happen on December 1.

The date is significant because Marape’s 18-month grace period from no confidence votes would expire then.

But yesterday the Speaker, Job Pomat, announced that opposition leader Belden Namah had no right to call for an adjournment and that Parliament was still in session.

Parliament was to resume at 2pm today but Michael Kabuni, a political scientist at the University of PNG, said this was brought forward to 10am, presumably prompted by legal action the opposition’s lawyers were preparing to take.

‘They had a quorum’
“They had a quorum. You need one third of the 111 MPs present, and they had more than 37. They presented a Budget to themselves, the government MPs and they voted on it, so the Budget is passed and they also voted to adjourn the parliament to 20th of April, 2021,” Kabuni said.

A vote of no confidence seems unlikely in April next year because it would be just a year or so out from the election.

Kabuni said such a move would prompt the Governor-General to dissolve Parliament and call an early poll.

Earlier today the former Commerce Minister, William Duma, who had stood shoulder to shoulder with the rebel MPs last Friday, rejoined the government, according to Kabuni.

This brought to three the number of MPs who have rejoined the government since the split.

This article is republished by the Pacific Media Centre under a partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz