Patrick Pruaitch

National Alliance Party parliamentary leader, Patrick Pruaitch, said it was inexcusable that thousands of Papua New Guineans have been unable to exercise their democratic right because the Electoral Commission had failed in its primary task of updating the Electoral Roll.

“Many of us have theories about these turn of events with legitimate voters taken off the Roll and other electorates padded in inexplicable ways,” Pruaitch says.

He also said returning officers have the legal authority to declare winning candidates.

"We are not promising overnight miracles,” says NA Party Leader, Patrick Pruaitch.  

“It will take time to work through current cash flow problems and to stabilise the economy.”

Pruaitch said the NA-led Government in 2002-2007 did rescue the country’s economy from a deficit to surplus budget.

He states that the current economic climate is challenging because of the K15 billion explosion in public sector debt in the past five years.

Pruaitch in a statement said the deportation proves that the government has no respect for the rule of law and for due processes.

He said the Government ignored a stay order from the Kokopo National Court and a prohibition on any airline from carrying out the deportation of the New Zealand citizen.

Tennent, the Administrator of the Catholic Archdiocese of Rabaul and a former law lecturer at the University of PNG, was deported for reported involvement with landowner issues in East New Britain.

Pruaitch was seeking discovery of the Ombudsman Commission’s investigation documents in the appeal, which challenges a decision of the National Court from Dec 2014 after the lower court rejected a motion he was seeking in a civil proceeding.

This was after he became subject to investigation by the Ombudsman Commission, during his term as the Minister for Forestry from 2002-2007, regarding allegations of misconduct in office against him under the Leadership Code.  

“It is pleasing to see the concern expressed by Senator Scott Ludlam for the plight of LNG project landowners who have not received any royalty payments three years after annual exports worth billions of dollars have commenced,” Patrick Pruaitch, the leader of the National Alliance Party, stated. 

Duwabane made this call after National Alliance Party leader, Patrick Pruaitch, and Triumph Heritage Empowerment Party leader, Don Polye, started blaming each other for the fall of Somare’s regime.

Pruaitch told Loop PNG earlier that he never voted against the illegal removal of former prime minister Sir Michael Somare in 2011. He said he was the only one in the Government to vote against putting Peter O’Neill as Prime Minister.

Pruaitch added that it was Polye who was the power broker back then that caused the fall of Sir Michael.

Eighteen candidates will be challenging the former Treasury Minister in West Sepik Province.

Pruaitch, when speaking to Loop PNG said, NA will return to form the new Government after the elections.

“We will win more seats and the Governor-General will invite us to form the government,” Pruaitch said.

NA Party has endorsed 74 candidates nationwide to contest for the 111 seats in the National Parliament.

(File picture)

“I was the only one in the Government to vote against putting Peter O’Neill as Prime Minister,” Pruaitch told Loop PNG.

He said the Supreme Court had upheld the decision that the removal of former NA party leader as prime minister when he was overseas for medical treatment was illegal.         

Pruaitch told Loop PNG that Opposition Leader Don Poyle was the power broker back then.

 “He left the (NA) party, and got the majority of National Alliance MPs from the Highlands and New Guinea Islands Region to form the current government, “Pruaitch said.

O’Neill said Patrick Pruaitch should have come out public while still in the government.

“In just a few weeks, we have seen National Alliance (NA) party members abandoning long-held and publicly stated policy positions and claiming that they had not been honest in their public statements while in Government,” O’Neill said in a statement.

“The former Treasurer (Patrick Pruaitch) has claimed that his financial powers as Treasurer were removed last year and that he did not make this public until after being removed from office.

“We will go to the election as we are, and after the election period there is a negotiation period,” the NA parliamentary leader said.

NA Party has been in Government in the last 15 years but broke ranks with the People’s National Congress (PNC) Party last week, after Pruaitch was removed from his Treasury Ministry portfolio by the prime minister.

For 10 consecutive years, NA was the major partner in the coalition government under former Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare.