No confidence move tossed out

PAPUA NEW GUINEA – An attempted motion of no confidence in Papua New Guinea’s prime minister, Peter O’Neill, has been thrown out by the acting speaker of parliament.

The deputy opposition leader, Sam Basil, attempted to file the motion earlier this week, but that was delayed after the acting speaker, Aide Ganasi, said he had to check the legitimacy of the signatures.

Radio New Zealand’s correspondent in Port Moresby, Todagia Kelola, said that in parliament on Thursday morning, Ganasi announced that the motion had been thrown out because it didn’t meet the required number of signatures.

Under PNG law a motion must have 11 signatures to be heard, but Kelola said the
opposition motion only had nine after two signatures were ruled invalid.

“Morobe Governor Kelly Naru, who initially signed before, did not sign this time and the MP for Vanimo Green, Belden Namah, has been deemed as suspended from parlaiament so his signature was not counted.”

Aide Ganasi has now referred Basil to parliament’s privileges committee for investigation because of the unauthorised signatures.

The move is likely to anger the opposition and its leader, Don Polye, who also tried to oust O’Neill in a similar motion that was rejected last year.

Earlier on Thursday, Polye said that all the motion’s signatures were in order and that there should not be any excuses to prevent the motion being tested on the floor of parliament. - RNZI