"Political Stability is the key ingredient to economic growth and prosperity for Solomon Islands," says John Keniapisia, Chairman of the Government's Working Committee on the Political Party Integrity (PPI) Bill.

Mr Keniapisia made the statement at a public consultation on the PPI Bill in Honiara today.

The consultation meeting was co-chaired by Mr Keniapisia and Attorney General Gabriel Suri with the inclusion of two former Parliamentarians Joses Tuhanuku and Walton Naezon as guest speakers.

The former parliamentarians informed members of the public about their knowledge and experience in political developments as well as strengths and weaknesses surrounding the current political party system in the country.

During the consultation, Mr Keniapisia explained that the bill was drawn out of the CNURA Government's recognition of the importance of political stability for Solomon Islands.

The key area the reform aims at addressing is to strengthen our political party system and thereby achieve political stability.

"The CNURA government strongly recognised the setbacks of political instability to our development aspirations and this bill is an attempt to address the causes of political instability in our nation," Mr Keniapisia said.

The CNURA Government has also indentified that the country's current weak political party system and other weak social factors has negatively affected political stability and the behavior of politicians in the last thirty years.

"A weak political party system has slowed national economic growth and leads to lack of prosperity for all Solomon Islanders," Mr Keniapisia explained.

One of the major issues raised by participants is a call for wider consultation on such important bill at all levels of society since it will affect everyone in the country once it becomes law.

A second consultation process will be held in Honiara on September 2 at the Multipurpose Hall while two other consultations planned for Auki and Gizo will be held at later dates.


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