PNG Political Party Road Show in Madang and Lae

The Registry of Political Parties will be conducting its political party roadshows in the form of “political party expos” from June 18 to 22 in Madang and Morobe Provinces. The roadshows will be staged in Madang town and Lae city. And they are open to the general public attend and get more information on the political parties.

The main purpose of the roadshows is to educate the people of the 2 provinces of the political parties – their roles and nature of political parties and most importantly to get the people to be interested to enlist as members of the political parties. The main institutions in Madang and Lae have been identified as the main targets for the roadshows. However this will come after the staging of the political party expos in Madang at Tusbab Secondary School and at the Sir Ignatius Stadium in Lae.

The roadshows are part of the annual activity for the Registry in 2018. It is an activity that the Registry would be undertaking in 2018 and beyond. In the meantime, the Registry has extended its invitation to the 45 political parties to join in the roadshow. This is not an activity for the political parties, political parties have their own plans and activities. Political parties should and must do their own awareness and recruitment of members but the Registry has extended the invitation out to the political parties as a matter of courtesy as this will also be an excellent opportunity for the Registry and the Political Parties to work togather in promoting political parties in the 2 provinces.
Due to limited funding, the Registry in its invitation urged the political parties to meet their own expenses to be part of the roadshows in the 2 provinces. For political parties that would not attend due to funding constraints then they still have the opportunity to conduct your own awareness at your own time and location.

Some political parties have raised concerns about funding constraints but it is about time that political parties need to do these kind of activities on their own. The Registry of Political Parties has its roles and responsibilities while the political parties they have your own which requires the executives to work hard in order to expose their political parties.

It is very important from the view of the Registry, that political parties in the country must now be self-sustaining. Political parties have to cater for themselves and to start doing more awareness rather than being ignorant of the realities confronting parties in the country. The Registry of Political Parties will not do the work for you, you have to lift yourselves to do what you are supposed to be doing anyway in order to promote your own party.

The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) is coming on board to assist the Registry in some of the costs for the roadshows. The costs is related mostly to venue hires while the Registry takes care of all the other costs. UNDP is not funding the entire roadshows as some political party executives have come to think and have raised issues with the roadshows.

UNDP also does not give funding directly to the Registry, UNDP manages its own funding and pay directly the costs of the party expos to the service providers. UNDP is bringing its own resource people as well as 3 representatives from political parties in Fiji. This would be a good opportunity for the political parties in Papua New Guinea to learn and share experiences with their counterparts from Fiji.

For the political party’s executives, these roadshows are part of the activities for the Registry in 2018. The Commission has approved the 2018 annual work plan and the Registry is now rolling out the work plan. Again this activity is for the Registry of Political Parties and not for the political parties. However executives of political parties have been invited to join us as this is of their own interest to do so for their political parties.

The main reason why these 2 provinces were selected is due to their population and connectivity with the Highlands Provinces. The people in the 2 towns will be the main targets for the party expos. In terms of membership for political parties, the Registry will inform the people of the different political parties we have in the country and it will be up to the people to make the choice on which party they prefer to be a member of.

This process will be made possible if the people know of the policies of the political parties. The Registry has listed the 4 main policies of the political parties which are part of the information kit that the Registry will distribute in Madang and in Lae.

The Registry is looking forward to the roadshows. The call the Registry would like to make is for the people to attend and learn more about the political parties in the country. The Governors for the 2 provinces have been informed about the expos and have expressed their willingness to officiate in both expos in Madang and in Lae.