National Party leader and Sinasina Yongumugl MP Kerenga Kua is calling on the Electoral Commissioner Patilias Gamato to immediately iron out grey areas in the 2017 National Elections.
Kua, a former Attorney General challenged the Gamato to set the parameters for the administration and supervision of the entire process of the General Elections.
He called on Gamato to confirm that the Governor-General's invitation to the political party with the most winning seats to form government will be extrapolated from the nomination forms and not from Form 29 of the Electoral Commission.
Kua in a statement this afternoon said Gamato must now tell PNG once and for all that he will advise Government House using the Nomination Forms and not Form 29 to determine the exact numbers of duly elected members of a political party.
The 2017 General Elections will be the fourth elections since the implementation of the Organic Law on Political Parties and Candidates (OLIPPAC).
In essence, the Governor-General in consultation with the Office of the Electoral Commission will invite the political party with the largest number of duly elected members of parliament to form the next government.
Kua said the exercise of compliance with Form 29 is to assist the Office of the Electoral Commission in the preparations of the General Elections.
He added that it is in the interest of all political parties to get a preliminary idea of the line up in the playing field meaning the knowledge of candidates that are running independently and those that have already committed themselves to political parties.
"The reason for this call is that in the last five years many procedures and processes of governance have been thwarted and ignored for self-serving interests of government.
"We keep telling our people this is a democracy yet we gnaw away at the very processes that ensure good governance and transparency.
Kua reiterated that setting the rules at the start is important in ensuring free and fair election outcomes.
"I also see it as imperative and call on the Office of the Electoral Commissioner to publish the list of intending candidates from the information they have garnered from Form 29.
“This will help achieve transparency and also avoid double endorsements by political parties," said Kua.