17 May 2012

Bougainville president says PNG parliament lacking credibility

5:41 pm on 17 May 2012

The president of the Autonomous Province of Bougainville says his people are starting to question the credibility of the national government in Papua New Guinea.

John Momis says there'll be a lot of interest in next month's election because the next group of Bougainville representatives will be in parliament in 2015 when first steps for a referendum on Bougainville's independence from PNG are due.

He says the recent government instability in PNG is a bad sign for Bougainville.

He says the province is looking for more stability as well as funding from the national government which was promised under the Bougainville peace agreement.

"The national government promised to give a hundred million, they haven't given us anything yet. Fifteen-million which was stipulated in the Bougainville Peace Agreement has not been released and so the people of Bougainville are now beginning to question the credibility of the national government."

The president of the Autonomous Province of Bougainville John Momis.

Bougainville has four elected representatives in the PNG parliament.