Papua New Guinea MPs have been warned that failing to register with new political parties they join could create instability after the June elections.
MPs can switch party at any time but they must formalise it with the Integrity of Political Parties and Candidates Commission.
The Commission's acting Registrar says there has been a lot of unregistered movement between parties since the government change last August.
Dr Alphonse Gelu foresees problems if MPs appear to belong to multiple parties because the party winning most seats in the election is invited to form the next government.
"Executives of political parties have been coming to my office telling me that 'oh, this person has moved but he's still a member' and this sort of confusion. And I think that's the mess that we're in. What I'm trying to do is just correct those movements and the confusion so that at least by the issue of writs [for the election] on May 18th we should at least know exactly the number of MPs per party."
Dr Alphonse Gelu
