Seven legislations to make changes to the Organic Law on National and Local-level Government Elections will be brought before Parliament when it sits on January 24.
PNG Electoral Commissioner Patilias Gamato said these are, reduction of campaign period from the current eight weeks to four weeks, separation of national and LLG elections, increase in nomination fee from K1,000 to K10,000 for national elections and K200 to K1,000 for LLG elections, increase in election petition filing fee from K5,000 to K20,000, places for filing election petitions to be restricted to four with one per region; provincial governments to conduct LLG elections, and online registration (enrolment) of eligible voters.
He said the current tentative election dates approved by the Governor-General still stands.
"People must know that the Electoral Commission and the National Executive Council (Cabinet) are not law making bodies. It's Parliament that makes laws and if it decides to change electoral laws, we must go by Parliament's decision," Gamato said.
The Parliament will have to pass the laws in January and March sittings before this term of Parliament ends.