Papua New Guinea and Bougainville have still to announce a date for a critical meeting to prepare for the autonomous region's referendum on independence.
The Joint Supervisory Board, or JSB, involving the leaders of both governments, was due to meet at the end of last month, but the chief secretaries of PNG and Bougainville are still to finalise some of the issues.
Bougainville has already said it is ready - there has been no word from Port Moresby.
The deputy leader of the opposition in the national parliament, and MP for South Bougainville, Tim Masiu, is urging the meeting to be convened.
He spoke with Don Wiseman who asked what he wants to see come from the meeting when it eventually goes ahead.
Transcript
TIM MASIU: I am just no sure of the exact date at the moment but it is highly likely to happen in the early this month. As far as your question concerned most of the things that we would like to discussed, would be the questions to be asked, the question or questions to be asked. Also becoming more critical is the make up of the Referendum Commission. We still have not heard from the PNG Government who their members would be in the Referendum Commission. So these two very important issues must be discussed and must be and must be settled as time is very critical to us right now.
DON WISEMAN: Why has it been so difficult for Port Moresby to organise two people to sit on this Referendum Commission?
TM: I am not really sure, I'm not sure what the problem is here, but I am also at a loss as to how this is happening, or why it is happening. Because you know it is not that hard to select prominent people from the whole lot of prominent people in PNG who can become members of the BRC [Bougainville Referendum Commission]. But for some reasons the national government is delaying this particular issue and it is of concern to us as Bougainville leaders.
DW: With this delay process going on, we still have a tentative date of 15th June, [for the vote to be held] which is now just 10 months away. Is that still tenable that date?
TM: We are very optimistic that we can meet the tentative date of 15th June 2019. We are firm on that date and we would like the PNG Government to make sure it keeps its side of the bargain for us to have the referendum on that date. But again anything can happen and PNG is the land of the unexpected. you know expect something else to be done and then suddenly something else is happening. So as far as the Bougainville leaders are concerned 15th June remains the target date, and we have not shifted attention. We are firm on that date and we believe we still attain that date as the referendum date.
To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following:
See terms of use.
