By Quintina Naime in Port Moresby
Papua New Guinea’s Opposition will take legal action against the dismissal of the vote of no-confidence against Prime Minister Peter O’Neill yesterday in Parliament.
It has outlined three specific orders which it wants the Supreme Court to deliberate on.
The vote of no-confidence was dismissed by the acting Speaker and chairman of the Permanent Parliamentary Committee on Private Business, Aide Ganasi.
Ganasi in his statement told Parliament that the motion lacked the number of signatures required under section 145 of the Constitution.
Opposition Leader Don Polye told the media their next step was to file an application to the Supreme Court to seek the court giving the following orders that:
- Parliament must reconvene to have the motion of no-confidence addressed,
- The motion of vote of no-confidence before the committee is valid under the various constitution sections, and within the requirements of the Standing Orders of Parliament, and
- The Parliamentary Committee will not be allowed to deliberate on it because of abusing its functions and power.
Polye said the Opposition would file every document, including the court orders for Vanimo Green MP Belden Namah, the signatures, the motion of vote of no-confidence and the signed letters confirming the signatures that had been signed on the motion.
The committee established that Namah, who is one of the signatories, is currently suspended and could not take part in the motion.
“All of these documents will be presented to the court of law and we will be depending on the court system to deliver a judgement.
“We will not stop because we know justice is very valuable, we know human rights is very important and we will continue to fight and stand up for the people.
“We will be seeking legal advice from our lawyers making sure that the matter doesn’t rest there,” said Polye.
Quintina Naime is a reporter for Loop PNG.
