It is up to Pangu Pati to remain intact, says Social Democratic Party leader Powes Parkop, as a vote of no confidence looms at the next sitting of Papua New Guinea Parliament due next Tuesday.
Parkop, who is also National Capital District governor, says that his party has a coalition agreement with Pangu and would continue to respect and honour that agreement.
“It’s all up to Pangu to remain intact,” he said. Parkop has six MPs.
As the numbers crunching gets under way, Prime Minister James Marape said Monday that his Pangu Pati remained intact with 59 members of Parliament.
A Registrar of Political Parties’ updated list of 30 April puts Pangu’s number at 56, inclusive of Chuave MP and Opposition Deputy Leader James Nomane.
And the man behind all the social media hype, Finance Minister Rainbo Paita, said he had not left Pangu.
He would not be drawn into any other comment on claims that had gone viral on social media stating that he “is about to or has left” the Government.
Meanwhile, Nomane said the vote of no confidence submission was still alive and ready to be put on the Notice Paper for Parliament to vote this month.
He said the motion of no confidence was still valid and was with the Speaker’s office.
According to the Private Business Committee, the Opposition made three submissions for a vote of no confidence (VONC) against Prime Minister James Marape.
The first submission was done on 13 February which was found to be defective due to a technical error. It was reasoned that the alternative prime minister’s electorate was written as East Sepik regional instead of East Sepik provincial electorate.
The second submission was done the next day on 14 February but was rejected after Milne Bay Governor Gordon Wesley, whose signature was on the second submission, allegedly wrote to the Speaker’s office and denied signing the submission.
A third submission was then made on 20 February.
Despite Marape’s claims that the submission was rejected due to allegations of forged signatures, the Opposition maintained that the submission was still valid as the Acting Speaker, Koni Iguan, had not written to the Opposition advising the office of its rejection.
Parliament will resume on 28 May.
