PARLIAMENT will resume its usual sitting today after a long adjournment for almost four months.
The long adjournment was due to a no confidence vote compounded with the announcement of figures indicating a quarter of staff at parliament was infected with Covid-19.
Many political analysts in the country deemed it was illegal as it did not comply with the number of parliament sitting days.
While Prime Minister James Marape successfully defended the vote of no confidence, his ruling PANGU Pati still faces a dilemma.
Also as the country prepares to go to the polls in July next year, a report from a weekly paper – The Sunday Bulletin in Port Moresby indicates discontentment among major political parties.
According to the paper’s senior journalist Simon Eroro all is not well within the major political parties in government including the ruling PANGU Pati, led by the Prime Minister James Marape.
The ruling party is facing the same dilemma with reports coming out confirming the Prime Minister and his other senior members of the parliamentary wing are working in isolation from the party’s non – parliamentary wing (party executives).
With only nine months to go before the National General Elections (NGE) and the issue of writs now scheduled on the 26th of April, 2022, the current disagreements are predicted to damage and split the ruling party going into the elections.
News coming out from the corridors of Waigani claim, the Prime Minister and other senior ministers close to him are working towards establishing a new political party and subsequently break away from the ruling party going into the elections.
The Sunday Bulletin could not establish this claim as all relevant persons’ phones contacted were left unanswered.
The newspaper also confirmed that many current sitting Members of Parliament are abandoning their political parties to join the ruling party deliberately in making sure the ruling party does not endorse any candidates against them.
Our insider in government (named) said the movements by the leaders is now making it difficult for the ruling party in endorsing its candidates in 2022 National General Elections because most of the MPs moving camps are those who have not been performing.
In a bid to endorse pro-candidates against the MPs in government, in line with PM Marape’s sentiments continuously echoed in the government caucus is troublesome. This is because the winning pro-candidates will have no effect in the formation of government based on the Organic Law on Political Parties.
The newspaper is also aware that one of the executives of the ruling party (named) is already preparing to stand for the regional seat in Oro province, a direct defiance of the PM’s decisions not to endorse candidates against any members of his government.
“Hopefully these problems can be fixed before the next elections,” the government insider said.
With these problems affecting the ruling political party, many leaders of smaller parties are already raising their hands, vying for the top post months before the 2022 elections.