OPPOSITION SAYS IT IS BOYCOTTING PARTIES INTEGRITY BILL

Hon. Matthew Wale. Photo credit: Solomon Islands Parliament.

The Parliamentary Opposition has announced its MPs are boycotting the Committee stage deliberations of the 2014 Political Parties Integrity Bill.

The boycott is being blamed on the Speaker of Parliament, Sir Allan Kemakeza, whom the Opposition says is rushing through the clauses of the bill and limiting questions from the Opposition side of the House.

The Deputy Leader of Opposition and Member of Parliament for Aoke Langa Langa, Matthew Wale said Opposition MPs walked out of Parliament’s deliberations into the Bill yesterday evening.

He said the actions of the Speaker in rushing through the clauses of the Bill deprives Parliamentarians from properly scrutinizing them.

He adds Opposition Members decided to boycott the Bill because it needs time to discuss.

“In the afternoon we’ve raised these issues and the Speaker started to move quickly, he doesn’t want too many questions to be asked, he just bulldozed the Bill. We feel this is an important Bill and no need for bulldozing and we need to take good time, adequate time to cover every clauses and every issues to clarify to members before they vote on each of the clauses. I raised a Point of Order under Order 52 of this to object the Speaker to try to vote on the issues and deal with one clause at a time. The Speaker over-ruled me saying he has discretion but actually he didn’t.”