BY BARNABAS MANEBONA
MEMBERS of Provincial Assembly for Tulaghi Ward 4, Hon Stanley Manetiva and his MPA members boycotted the meeting of the Motion of No Confidence against him today.
Hon Stanley Manetiva had earlier made it known that though he welcomed the MONC, his team of MPAs will not attend the meeting. This is because from experiencing all the political instability since the Provincial Public Accounts Committee (PPAC) resignation saga earlier this year, Mr Manetiva said the meeting is a waste of time, budget and Energy.
This answers CIP’s Hon Speaker Francis Moah, questioning this morning why their group did not attend the meeting leading to the MONC today.
“My group will not attend the meeting, reason, no finance.
“If the Contingency Warrant [CW] that CIP is operating under expires by the end of June, this means we must pass the ‘Budget’, however 100 percent, the Provincial Capacity Development Fund [PCDF] is gone. But I guess that on July 1 [today] is only for the MONC. Though if there will be a new led government, there will be no ‘Budget’,” said Manetiva.
Hon Stanley Manetiva has been defeated as the Premier for CIP this morning as the Motion of No Confidence (MONC) against him was passed.
Despite Manetiva and his team not turning up for the meeting, the meeting proceeded with the motion, having it passed in favour of eight (8) MPAs. There are 13 Wards in CIP.
CIP’s Hon Speaker Francis Moah speaking to Sunday Isles this afternoon said they first suspended the meeting for an hour, giving time for the Manetiva led MPAs to arrive and attend, but they did not turn up.
The reason as to why the five MPAs did not attend the meeting is not made known according to Speaker, as he said he does not see any reason as to why they would not attend.
Election for the new Premier will be next week Wednesday.
Hon Moah said they do not want to declare nominations yet because it is heading into the weekend.
“We are taking 48 hours according to the Standing Orders, we will start it on Monday, 9am nominations will be open and it will close on Wednesday 8 am, an hour before the meeting. At 9 am Wednesday we should proceed with the election for new Premier,” said Moah.
As a consequence as well from all the political unsteadiness, CIP’s Assembly according to Speaker Moah will only be operating on the ‘Recurrent Budget’ after the election for new Premier next week.
“We will only be operating on the Recurrent Budget, a little on the Capital Budget but only on the ministerial allocations. For the PCDF, 100 percent, it is all out. We have disqualified for it. The previous Budget announced was deemed invalid, we are coming back to reprocess everything,” said Moah.
