PAPUA NEW GUINEA – The practice in Papua New Guinea of keeping national parliamentarians in “camps” in the lead-up to a vote of no confidence or a government formation period should be abandoned.

Opposition MP and National Party leader Kerenga Kua made the call after and his colleagues conceded defeat after Prime Minister Peter O’Neill survived a vote of no confidence, in an 85-21 vote that left the Opposition decimated.

Ahead of the vote the ruling People’s National Congress party (PNC) flew all its supporters to the scenic town of Alotau in Milne Bay, triggering concerns amongst the opposition that the MPs were being locked up and forced to vote against their will.

Kua said opposition politicians felt that the “camp” in Alotau played a decisive role in determining the outcome of the vote.

Kua said the attorney general should recommend that the Law Reform Commission and the registrar of political parties look at the practice and formulate legal mechanisms to ensure activities such as “horse trading” are not entertained.

“ It is a case for future law reform that subsequent to the lodgment of a vote of no confidence, notice must be properly elaborated and this this drifting into camps has to be stopped,” he added.

The danger of politicians staying in camps prior to a crucial vote such as a vote of no confidence is they are “removed from reality, he said.

Kua said 85 MPs voted for O’Neill despite the student unrest and strike action by professional groups such as pilots and medical doctors and nurses.

“Camps have got to be done away with and in that way I believe we will see the truth surface. The reality is different and these 85 MPs are behaving totally different and divorced from the facts that exist.” - PC

Lawyer Paraka forms political party

PAPUA NEW GUINEA – The head of the law firm at the centre of a fraud case which has engulfed Papua New Guinea’s prime minister is forming his own political party.

Paul Paraka on Thursday registered his Grass Roots United Front Party which is already being called by the acronym GRUF. He said he has given a lot to grassroots communities through his law firm, and wants to now provide political leadership for them.

However, Paraka faces more than 30 corruption-related charges involving alleged fraud of more than US$70 million.

The case has embroiled the Prime Minister, Peter O’Neill, who is alleged to have authorised US$30 million worth of payments to Paraka’s law firm.

But in an interview with the Post-Courier newspaper, Paraka denied the allegations, and said the truth would eventually prevail.

Paraka said he was contesting the 2017 general elections because he wanted the rural people to get the government services that have been missing since independence.

“I started and grew Paraka Lawyers in 1994 when I was 26 years old from nothing to the biggest law firm in PNG through sheer hard work and God-given intelligence.

“I and the law firm that I worked so hard to build, which provided jobs for more than 30,000 young men and women over the years, have been hurt and victimised by bad political leadership and bad political decisions.

“It is the very same force that destroyed the dreams and aspirations of many Papua New Guineans and all the grassroots population in PNG.

“I will now swap the comfort of a legal career with that of a grassroots leader for the 10 million grassroots population of PNG. I want to be part of a solution of their pain, sufferings and struggles.

“I will now call upon the grassroots of PNG for reason and judgment. They will judge me whether I am worthy of leading them and fighting for their cause.

“Ultimately it’s them who will judge and choose.”

Paraka said he would travel throughout the country for the next eight months to conduct awareness on his GRUF Party’s policies and platform.

Paraka is one of the country’s most successful barristers.

He attended the University of PNG, University of California in Berkeley, USA and Oxford University in the UK. - PNC