A very controversial proposed law to amend the Constitution on the Motion of No Confidence Law got past the first vote in parliament despite being strongly opposed by the Opposition during the afternoon session yesterday.
The proposed law to amend the Constitution was presented by the Minister for Justice and Attorney General, Pila Niningi for its Second Reading and the first required opportunity for debate and First Vote in parliament.
The proposed law seeks to amend section 145 of the Constitution, so to make changes to the 18 months grace period to allow a government to operate right after a National General Election, before a Vote of No Confidence (VONC) can be attempted.
According to the Minister, Section 145 of the Constitution will be amended by adding immediately after Subsection (4), the following new Subsection:
“(5) Where a motion of no confidence in the Prime Minister is unsuccessful, a subsequent motion of no confidence in the Prime Minister or the Ministry after the unsuccessful motion of no confidence, shall not be moved for another period of 18 months commencing on the date that the motion of no confidence is unsuccessful.”
Now this means that if a VONC against a sitting Prime Minister is unsuccessful, another possible VONC can be lodged only after 18 months from the time of the defeat of that VONC, and not just any time after that unsuccessful vote.
Minister Niningi stressed that this proposed amendment to the constitution aims to enable stability and confidence in the government, which would then lead to confidence from the public service, the private sector, the people, and the investors and donors in the government’s ability to lead, and with that enable efficient services and developments to reach the people.
However, this justification of the proposed amendment did not settle well with the Opposition team, with most of the MPs on the other side of the House strongly debating against it and pleading with the MPs on the government benches to join them in rejecting it by voting against it.
Most of the Opposition MPs said this proposed amendment serves only to protect the prime minister, allowing him to continue to sit on the chair despite numerous calls for a change in leadership over his poor handling of the affairs of the country.
Meantime, most of the Government MPs were in favour, echoing very much the same reasons as that of the Justice Minister. PM James Marape weighed in saying that the amendment will not totally remove the Motion of No Confidence in the Constitution, instead extends the time frame.
One MP who also contributed to the debate was the MP for Finschhafen Rainbo Paita, who recently returned to the government benches with his 14 members of his ‘OUR Pati’ after defecting from the Opposition.
Mr. Paita said he and his party members fully support the proposed legislation, describing it as a shield and a sword for the prime minister to utilize to do some good work to improve the current situation faced in the country.
“Prime Minister, we will support you with this legislation,” Paita declared.
“You must now make strong calls, reforms, agendas, laws so that after 50 years we must see new boundaries, new sets of record. We must do it as a government.”
“Take it as a confidence for you to make some hard calls and for us to progress forward,” he said.
Meanwhile, the proposed amendment received unanimous support from the MPs, 79 to 14 allowing it to pass the First Vote. However, this proposed piece of legislation will need two more votes to come into effect. At this stage, the Second Vote has been adjourned for at least 2 months as required by the Constitution.
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