“I welcome any challenge”: James Marape

Prime Minister James Marape is confident of taking an 80-member coalition government to face the motion on the Vote of No Confidence beginning Tuesday this week when Parliament resumes.

Mr Marape said Eighty [80] is good for them, especially as they want to pursue constitutional matters in Parliament and urged Pangu supporters, the people of PNG including the business community, to continue business as usual.

“I have had this challenge in 2020 when one-third of those who were in my Cabinet and government tried to rearrange the chairs to Vanimo, but we maintained government right through. It’s nothing new; it comes with the territory.

“We are not in the business of deliberately dismantling the Opposition, which is important for our country’s governance, so I welcome any challenge,” Mr Marape said.

The Prime Minister said a good democracy must also have a strong, robust opposition to keep government in check and he expects a few MPs moving out of and into government before the VONC matter is concluded.

He said the government has not been deliberately stifling the VONC as perceived, rather it was the Opposition’s inability to reinforce its stand because it has been lacking in numbers and buying time by deliberately making mistakes in processing their VONC motion.