Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape has assured the nation that it will be “business as usual” when parliament sits today, dispelling speculation of an early adjournment to September to avoid a no-confidence motion against him.
“For the Government, it will be business as usual. The Opposition has been sensationalising the vote of no confidence (without having the required) numbers,” he said.
“They must have 56 MPs to succeed.”
Marape said that Pangu Pati-led coalition had the support of 74 MPs as of Monday.
He accused the Opposition of creating “hot air”, adding that the Government will not wait for them to “play around with parliamentary processes and people’s emotions”.
But Opposition Leader Douglas Tomuriesa said the nation was waiting in anticipation for the motion of no confidence, saying a second motion had been successfully filed and before the Parliament’s private business committee for deliberation, after the first one was rejected.
West New Britain Governor Sasindran Muthuvel, on behalf of those who defected from Pangu two weeks ago, also said they expected “normal procedures” to take place when Parliament resumed today.
He said that tomorrow (Wednesday), Parliament’s private business committee would be deliberating on the rectified motion of no confidence filed on May 29 which was presented to Speaker Job Pomat last Wednesday by Opposition Leader Douglas Tomuriesa.
“As noted by Speaker Pomat last Wednesday, the committee was satisfied that we met four out of five requirements in the previous motion, however the only issue was the omission of one of the 12 signatories.
“Upon submitting the fresh motion which rectified the omission, Deputy Speaker Koni Iguan, who presided over the rest of the Wednesday afternoon sitting, also informed Parliament that the Speaker had received a new notice of a motion of no confidence from the Opposition.
“We expect the private business committee to simply ensure that the final requirement was indeed met,” he said.
