18 Nov 2013

Several parties in PNG could face de-registration

10:25 am on 18 November 2013

Papua New Guinea's registrar of political parties is considering whether to de-register about 30 parties which haven't submittd election expenses incurred during last year's election.

In September, Dr Alphonse Gelu referred nine members of parliament to the Ombudsman Commission for failing to submit their financial returns.

Dr Gelu says political parties have a poor record of filing electoral expenses, with his office only receiving returns from about 12 parties, despite at least 40 participating in the election.

He says while the majority of the offending parties don't have any MPs, they still have to comply.

"So closely looking at the future of these little parties whether they should continue to exist or we should get rid of them, for me I'm keen in doing that because we have a lot of political parties that just don't make any impact so if they don't comply with the law I don't see any reason why they should still exist."

The Papua New Guinea registrar of political parties, Dr Alphonse Gelu.