By JOE GURINA
The country’s constitution will under-go a major review to take stock of how the country has progressed as a nation since Independence.
The Constitutional and Law Reform Commission (CLRC) will under-take the major review and will conduct a nation-wide consultation thereafter to gauge the views of many people from all sectors of the society.
The launch of the ‘Review of the Form and System of Government-Election of Prime Minister By The People’ attracted state Ministers, open MPs, including the Prime Minister James Marape, head of government agencies, provincial governors, provincial administrators and district administrators who turned up to witness a milestone initiative taken up by the government to decide the destiny of Papua New Guinea in the next 50 years.
Chairman of the CLRC and MP for Okapa Saki Soloma during the launching said, the review was critical to audit the form and systems of Government and analyze whether the current form and system of the government had adequately worked for us as a nation, and to determine if there was an alternate form and system of government, that can take us through the next 50 years and beyond.
He said that the government believes that the time is right to initiate this major review on the current form and system of government.
‘’The type of government that PNG has today is a result of recommendations on the system of government by the Constitutional Planning Committee,’’ he said.
He said the recommendations were fitting for a new country at that time since independence, but after nearly 50 years, it was time for a review to reflect the current circumstances of PNG.
He said that the review emanated from the National Executive Council Decision No.395 of 2021, dated 20th December 2020, advised the Head of State to issue this Constitutional Directive to CLRC to review the Constitution, the Organic Law on Provincial and Local Level Government and other related laws around the form and system of government, and with a focus on the election of the Prime Minister.
Marape said, ‘’ As we look back 50 years today, it is upon our generation today to have a review holistically done and from the either side, we could refurbish and strengthened and we can pass it on to our next generation,’’ he said.
Marape said, the three arms of government and their structures must be relooked and reviewed and their separation must be entrenched to set a robust system in place.
He added that the 1995 review of the provincial government system arrived at a compromised outcome and not the outcome it supposed to be, when it supposed to be completely overhauled and brought to the national parliament.
