The two-week extension on the return of Papua New Guinea’s general election writs date has been knocked as unconstitutional.

A former Chief Justice, Sir Arnold Amet, said there were no provisions in the Constitution for any extension of writs beyond the fifth anniversary of the date fixed for the return of the writs, which was yesterday — July 29.

He said also that there were no constitutional provisions for a caretaker government to continue beyond this date.

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Sir Arnold’s stance came as uncertainty surrounded the extension of the deadline for return of writs to August 12.

The extension sought by Electoral Commissioner Simon Sinai was granted by Governor-General Sir Bob Dadae this week because electoral officials in more than half of the country’s 118 electorates had yet to complete counting and declare members of the new Parliament.

Government House has indicated the instrument for gazetting of the extension was signed on Tuesday, but by yesterday there was no formal notice of this.

According to Secretary for Department of Justice and Attorney-General Dr Eric Kwa, the fifth anniversary for the 10th Parliament fell yesterday – July 29.

Sir Arnold’s view
Said Sir Arnold: “And so if July 29, 2022 is the date originally fixed for the return of the writs, as being nearly as may reasonably be to the fifth anniversary of the date fixed for the return of the writs for the previous general election, which according to the 2017 calendar is July 28, then that is in sufficient compliance with the Constitution and Organic Law.

“The originally scheduled time and date for the calling of the first meeting of Parliament pursuant to the Constitution section 124 (1) and the Organic Law on Calling of Parliament for Thursday. August 4, 2022, was consistent with the ‘anniversary of the term of Parliament’.

“The extension of date for the return of writs to August 12 2022, to now extend the time for the return of the writs, as advised by the Head of State, acting on advice of the Electoral Commission, would now require the time and date to be fixed for the first meeting of Parliament to be ‘not more than seven days’ after August 12, 2022, which if not already fixed and advised shall be Thursday August 18 2022.”

Sir Arnold said the potential constitutional implications of this extension were that it:

• Took the date fixed for the return of the writs to beyond the “as nearly as may reasonably be to the fifth anniversary of the date fixed for the return of the writs for the previous general election” by 15 days;
• Took the term of office of the current members of Parliament, also 15 days, beyond the normal term of office of five years;
• Extended the life of the current term of Parliament beyond the five years by 15 days to the return of writs and 21 days to the calling of the first meeting of Parliament, possibly on August 18, 2022.

Miriam Zarriga is a PNG Post-Courier reporter. Republished with permission.

A former Chief Justice of Papua New Guinea, Sir Arnold Amet, today condemned the actions of the beleagured Electoral Commissioner in calling on the Governor-General to invite incumbent Prime Minister Peter O’Neill to form a government without the elections counting having been completed.

Commissioner Patilias Gamato took this controversial step with the Governor-General, Sir Bob Dadae, while 23 out of the 111 seats in Parliament were still undeclared.

Sir Arnold, himself an unsuccessful candidate in the elections having stood for Sumkar Open, said the commissioner’s move was “principally wrong and premature”.

“By yesterday afternoon 23 writs had not been returned because counting was still progressing,” Sir Arnold wrote on his Facebook page.

“The Electoral Commissioner had the responsibility to seek a further extension to allow those 23 electorates’ counting to be completed and for their writs to returned first before he determined which party returned the most nominated candidates to advise the GG to issue the letter of invitation.

“As we now understand the nation is grateful to the Ombudsman Commission for the brave and responsible initiative to go to the Supreme Court to obtain the order to extend the return of writs to Monday.”

From a practical legal perspective, the Supreme Court order meant that the Electoral Commissioner must return all the remaining writs before it is determined which party has the strongest support,” Sir Arnold wrote.

“That may still be PNC [O’Neill’s People’s National Congress]. That is not the issue. The EC had misapplied [his] responsibility and it was wrong and we, the nation, [are] pleased that the OC took the initiative to seek the intervention of the Supreme Court.

Sir Arnold appealed to Gamato to “not keep abusing and misapplying the law”.

Gamato was been widely condemned for the conduct of the elections.

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