By FIDELIS SUKINA
Children as young as 15 might have a chance to vote for
referendum in the Autonomous Bougainville Government when the date is set.
This was made known by the chairman of the Referendum,
Weapons disposal, and Peace and unification committee Joseph Watawi.
He said this during a media briefing when the committee was
here in Port Moresby Papua New Guinea to meet with the PNG Parliamentary committee
on Bougainville affairs this month.
“During the voting we are assuming that only children over
the age of 18 will be voting but it will be a matter of consultation with the
relevant authorities whether we should lower the age down to 15”.
“Young students should accept the fact that it is not any
other ordinary vote it is a vote that will determine Bougainville’s future and
its population”.
Watawi added that School aged children were part of the
process and will be given the opportunity, to understand the role of referendum
and what it means to be an independent nation.
“The vote for
referendum is a democratic process and we will make sure students look at the
pros and cons and we will tell them what it is to be an independent nation and
get them to make informed choices”.
The exact date for the vote of referendum will be decided by
the National Government and the Autonomous Region of Bougainville Government
(ABG) and this was further iterated Watawi
“The time and the date will be agreed upon by the two
governments, from our end the president of the ABG has signaled 2019 but the exact
date and month is to be agreed on”.
“The road ahead is not a smooth road it is a difficult road,
a lot of things with in the Bougainville Peace Agreement and Part 14 of the
National constitution needs to be addressed, and the ABG cannot go its own way
from the National Government because of the peace agreement”.
He added that there were outstanding issues faced by
Bougainville and both governments needed to work together.
“We have outstanding issues which both governments have to
work together to achieve like when does Bougainville reach physical self-reliance,
when do we achieve this weapons disposal , and other issues like law and order, this are critical bench
marks, it’s got to be done with both governments because of the joint creation
when we developed and established the Bougainville peace agreement assisting
each other in moving forward to achieving our benchmarks is not an easy road we are also pressed against time
and we need to identifying necessary practical steps to face these
issues”. Watawi said
No comments:
Post a Comment