Nomination Fee

Prime Minister Peter O’Neill stressed that it was a government caucus decision and not a one-man decision.

He said the proposed law is not intended to restrict people to stand for elections but was introduced because of the increasing cost of running the elections.

The last reading to amend the Organic Law on National and Provincial and Local-Level Government Elections will go before Parliament in the last sitting of Parliament this month.

The Registrar of Political Parties, Dr Alphonse Gelu, tells Loop PNG that smaller parties have informed him that the proposed increase, from K1000 to K10,000, will significantly impact them and the number of candidates they intend to field during the elections.

He said the decision to increase the fee should have been done some years back and not on the eve of the elections.