By Thierry Lepani in Port Moresby
The People’s Party has made an unprecedented announcement to endorse four women candidates for all four National Capital District (NCD) seats in the Papua New Guinea national election this year.
Making the announcement at Parliament House, People’s Party founder and Enga Governor, Sir Peter Ipatas introduced the four candidates — Tania Bale (Nugent) for Moresby Northeast, Anna Kavana Bais for Moresby Northwest, Michelle Hau’ofa for Moresby South and Sylvia Pascoe for NCD regional.
The four women rallied behind Sir Peter as he made the revelation, where he said: “These are women with integrity — if people of this city decide to put a women team to lead them then I think they can make a big difference.
“People’s Party has a history and culture of integrity and we are supporting candidates that reflect this — both men and women. We believe these four candidates we are endorsing for the NCD seats hold the People’s Party values and principles.”
Party leader and Jiwaka Governor William Tongamp said: “People’s Party supports women leaders and believes the way to get more women into Parliament is to increase the number of women standing in seats around the country.
“That is why we are proud to support and endorse these four women and that is why People’s Party has a policy to legislate for political parties to amend their constitutions to have 50 percent of their endorsed candidates to be women.”
All four candidates have illustrious careers spanning from business, media, public service, charitable work and advocacy.
Bais took part in last year’s Moresby Northwest byelection under the same party, and said she was looking forward to assisting her sister candidates with her experiences.
She added that she looked forward to standing alongside her party of women candidates for the elections in NCD, and assisting each other in their campaign.
Sir Peter also challenged other political parties to “walk the talk” and endorse women candidates in this coming election.
Thierry Lepani is a PNG Post-Courier reporter. Republished with permission.
