File photo: ABG President Ishmael Toroama, right, and PNG Prime Minister James Marape at the last JSB Meeting in Port Moresby in July this year. Photo: Autonomous Bougainville Government
The Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) is strongly opposed to a secret ballot for MPs when its independence referendum goes to the Papua New Guinea parliament.
It says the government in Port Moresby is pushing for a secret ballot.
Concern about this and the PNG's government's desire that there are at least two sessions of parliament to discuss the document have prompted Bougainville to seek an urgent meeting of the Joint Supervisory Body (JSB), which is the agency that manages relations between Port Moresby and Buka.
Bougainville's Minister of Independence Mission Implementation, Ezekiel Masatt, wants this to be withdrawn along with the push for a secret vote.
"We must not be secret. The people of Bougainville voted in our members to go and argue the independence case on the floor of the national parliament. We would love to see our members stand up and argue and vote in public, and in a transparent fashion, rather than hiding behind a secret ballot vote," he said.
Of the PNG government's desire to spread the debate to at least two sessions of parliament, Masatt said this could allow the debate to go on indefinitely.
"Having agreed in Wabag and having agreed at the Era Kone Covenant that this would be the year for ratification and if we were to agree to not less than two sittings then we might as well have three sittings, we might have four, we might have ten, and that goes beyond the agreed 2023 being the year for the ratification," he said.
He said they also want Port Moresby to commit to using an independent mediator, or mediators, to resolve the issues engulfing the process.
At the time of the last JSB meeting in July, the Bougainville government's ire was raised by the push by the PNG Minister for Bougainville Affairs, Manasseh Makiba, for the vote on the tabling of the referendum document to be by an absolute majority.
But Masatt maintained then and now that this is not necessary since it is not a constitutional matter, and should proceed on a simple majority vote.
He said the expected later formalisation of Bougainville's independence would be a constitutional matter and "they could live with an absolute majority vote on that."
RNZ Pacific has contacted Makiba for comment.
