{"id":1717,"date":"2020-12-10T05:28:06","date_gmt":"2020-12-10T05:28:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=136626"},"modified":"2020-12-10T05:28:06","modified_gmt":"2020-12-10T05:28:06","slug":"pressure-builds-on-pngs-marape-as-parliament-showdown-looms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2020\/12\/10\/pressure-builds-on-pngs-marape-as-parliament-showdown-looms\/","title":{"rendered":"Pressure builds on PNG\u2019s Marape as Parliament showdown looms"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>PNG Prime Minister James Marape … Parliament appears evenly split. Image: PNG govt\/RNZ<\/div>\n

By Johnny Blades<\/a>, RNZ Pacific<\/a> journalist<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Papua New Guinea\u2019s Prime Minister James Marape has rejected opposition leader Belden Namah\u2019s call for him to resign.<\/p>\n

Namah\u2019s call came after the Supreme Court yesterday ordered Parliament to sit next Monday, quashing the government\u2019s recent adjournment of Parliament until April.<\/p>\n

The court ruled<\/a> that the Speaker\u2019s move to overrule an earlier adjournment allowed by his deputy and recall Parliament last month, when the opposition was not present, was unconstitutional.<\/p>\n

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Welcoming the ruling outside the court in Port Moresby, Namah told media that his group was ready to form government.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are ready to go into Parliament. We are ready to deliver the government to the people of PNG. We have the majority already,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m now calling on the Honourable James Marape to do the right thing by the people of this country, to resign as the prime minister effective as of today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marape, who lost his majority a month ago but has since clawed back support from several MPs, said he understood the opposition was preparing for a vote of no-confidence.<\/p>\n

\u2018Proper place is no-confidence vote\u2019<\/strong>
\u201cSome are asking for my resignation. At no instance will I resign from office. I don\u2019t see any legitimate reasons for my resignation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"PNGOpposition leader Belden Namah \u2026 says his group is ready to form a new government. Image: Alex Smith\/RNZ<\/div>\n

\u201cIf you want to get me out of office, then the proper place is contest through a vote of no-confidence process on the floor of Parliament.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parliament appears evenly split, with Marape saying he had the support of 55 of the 111 MPs.<\/p>\n

Marape said the MPs with him could \u201cnot be bought or sold\u201d, characterising the opposition\u2019s move to remove him as driven by some MPs\u2019 personal interest to be prime minister.<\/p>\n

But his government is under significant parliamentary pressure, as the Supreme Court ruling rendered all Parliamentary business on November 17 invalid.<\/p>\n

That included the government\u2019s passing of the 2021 budget, which will have to be tabled again \u2013 although this time the opposition MPs will be present.<\/p>\n

The opposition has not revealed who its nomination for alternative prime minister would be.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neill key player<\/strong>
The former prime minister Peter O\u2019Neill, who filed the successful Supreme Court challenge, remains a key player in efforts to remove Marape.<\/p>\n

Last year, Marape led moves to oust O\u2019Neill, who resigned before a Parliamentary vote elevated his former close ally to the leadership.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neill said that Marape should do what he did when he had lost a clear majority and resign.<\/p>\n

Marape has meanwhile appealed for the public to remain calm, despite the political turbulence.<\/p>\n

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This article is republished by the Pacific Media Centre under a partnership agreement with RNZ.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

\"Print<\/a><\/div>\n\n

This post was originally published on Radio Free<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PNG Prime Minister James Marape \u2026 Parliament appears evenly split. Image: PNG govt\/RNZ By Johnny Blades, RNZ Pacific journalist Papua New Guinea\u2019s Prime Minister James Marape has rejected\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[621,432,5,622,4,12,366,623,624,625,14,368],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1717"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1717"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1718,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1717\/revisions\/1718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}