After the Pangu Pati was officially invited by the Governor General to form the next government for the 11th Parliament, the party leader James Marape made it clear that he is adamant in making sure their priority of improving the electoral process is one policy that they will work on achieving in their term in office.
Mr. Marape, who is also the Member for Tari Pori, said that fixing the system and processes of government is their priority now as he remined everyone of the issues that have popped up during the 2022 National General Election.
“Chief amongst our responsibilities, is we will look at the systems of government we have and the processes we have. Over the last forty-six years the processes have been eroded and not being strengthened over time,” said Marape.
Marape said Pangu Pati and its coalition partners plan to bring in new policies that are consistent with what they want to do for the country and the people.
One of those policies in mind is the proposed review and reform of the electoral process, which Marape said is chief amongst others.
“I hear many issues on the electoral process; biometric, common roll update and census will take place in twenty- twenty- three.”
He said by next year the Pangu Led government will ensure the census takes place and people all over the country must cooperate by getting themselves enrolled so to avoid what was experienced in this election with issues with names on the common roll.
“From that we will overlap with an electronic voter ID system. It will cost us some money, but we’ve heard your cry and we are willing to go down that path so that every citizen in our country has an identification system so that when the next opportunity for you to vote comes, you vote based on your own ID system,” he said.
The other matter Marape said is part of this proposed reform is to look at the process of electing a prime minister to office.
He said after forming the government they will ask the Constitutional Law Reform Commission to carry out a survey into whether the people would want a change in the process, whereby the prime minister is elected by the people to office instead of through the traditional parliamentary process.
“If majority want to elect their prime minister, then we will tie the voting process of one person- one vote to a better ID system. So, we get a tidier voting process for election of leadership and the people can chose their leadership at different layers of the country,” Marape said.
Marape is hoping to achieving this before the country’s 50th Independence Anniversary in 2025 and then implement them during the next election, which is the 2027 National General Election.