25 Apr 2007

Calls in PNG for parliament to be suspended after more days without a quorum

1:37 pm on 25 April 2007

A Papua New Guinea MP says parliament should be dissolved because so few MPs are attending the current session.

The Anglim MP Jamie Maxtone-Graham said parliament should be dissolved because the government has lost its ability to manage the numbers.

The Post Courier reports that in the past five days of its final session of this term, parliament has sat for only one and a half days, and for three and a half days it didn't have the required quorum to sit.

Mr Maxtone Graham says it is the business of the government to ensure that there are the numbers for the parliamentary sittings.

The paper says frustrated MPs had asked Speaker Jeffery Nape to suspend parliament until after the elections, after he was forced yesterday to adjourn the House again because only 30 members were present.