Dear Editor – The Office of the Leader of Opposition and more recently, Dr Nanau have all insinuated that the PPIA 2014 was created to address political instability in the country.
Many others who have commented both online and through traditional media still mistakenly believe this untruth.
Indeed, the architects of this law may have had the intent to draft such a bill but the final bill that passed on the floor of parliament is anything but an anti-defection law.
The act simply provides a mechanism on how political parties are required to operate prior to and after the election.
In my opinion, it is simply a governance framework. In all honesty the law makes the process of “grasshopping” very simple.
You resign from one party and simply join another.
The real issue that we should be concerned about is that the legislators who passed this law either willfully ignored the provisions of the law or, sad if it were true, simply do not understand what it contains.
The media and our political commentators must stop perpetuating the myth that the law in its current form is an anti-defection law. Reading the law in its entirety proves this point.
The call for an amendment to the law is the right and hopefully, this time our legislators actually understand what they’ve put into the pie.
Some of the suggestions made by Dr Nanau will actually make the PPIA 2014 an anti-defection law.
Lynnold Misifea Wini
Honiara
