National Alliance firm on expelling 20

By ISAAC NICHOLAS

THE National Alliance council will not hold any meetings until the process of expelling the 20 members of parliament is completed, party president Simon Kaiwi says, The National reports.
He said the expulsion process had started with each of the 20 MPs given 14 days to respond either in writing or in person on why they should not be expelled from the National Alliance. They have until Sept 28.
"Some members of the NA council have compromised their position by taking sides with the expelled MPs," Kaiwi said.
"They are confused with their roles and are meddling with the affairs of the parliamentary wing."
Kaiwi was responding to a request by deputy presidents led by James Kond (highlands), Douglas Tomurisa (southern) and John Tuka (islands) and council members John Toberame (highlands) and Charles Synell (islands) for an special NA council meeting.
Kond and his group wanted to discuss, among other things, the:

• Special Supreme Court reference by the East Sepik provincial executive council and the NA party participation as an intervener;
• Contents of the full-page advertisement by Kaiwi published in The National last Wednesday; and
• Purported announcement by the NA executive committee to expel 20 MPs in the O'Neill-led government.
  

Kaiwi said the national execu­tive committee considered the parliament action in removing the NA-led government as a very serious matter that was of great concern to the party.
"We took the decision in the interest of the party to become an intervener.
"In case you have forgotten, the NA party was invited to form government after it won the highest number of endorsed candidates against other political parties.
"The parliament may remove the government, but could it do so in the way it did on Aug 2?
"That is the issue which requires the Supreme Court to determine and, therefore, the party has sufficient interest in the matter to join in as intervener."
Kaiwi said the second agenda in a full-page advertisement was his response to Don Polye's claim of being the NA parliamentary leader without any properly constituted meeting of the parliamentary wing held to deal with the leadership issue.
"The purported meeting by a faction in Minj early last month does not constitute such a meeting and Polye and group collaborated to pursue an agenda that is personal and detrimental to the interest of the NA party."
Kaiwi said for the expulsion of the 20 MPs, clause 17 of the party constitution was invoked to deal with individual MPs who colluded with others to overthrow the NA-led government.
"But, as though that is not enough, they supported the government to declare the seat of the parliamentary leader of our party vacant because he was seriously ill and could not attend the meetings.
"It is similar to the actions of (former) acting prime minister Sam Abal dismissing Polye as a minister and to remove the de­puty parliamentary leadership of highlands from him.
"We stood by the party process and defended Polye against the actions of the acting prime minister and suspended Abal as a member of NA for two months."
Kaiwi said the MPs were being disciplined individually and requirements under the party constitution were being followed.
"The provision for convening a special council meeting may be used only if three meetings have been held and an issue cannot be dealt with in any other way," he said.