An attempted motion of no confidence in Papua New Guinea's prime minister, Peter O'Neill, has been thrown out by the acting speaker of parliament.
Papua New Guinea's prime minister Peter O'Neill has seen off yet another opposition attempt to file a motion of no confidence against him. Photo: Supplied
The deputy opposition leader, Sam Basil, attempted to file the motion earlier this week, but that was delayed after the acting speaker, Aide Ganasi, said he had to check the legitimacy of the signatures.
Our correspondent, Todagia Kelola, said that in parliament on Thursday morning, Mr Ganasi announced that the motion had been thrown out because it didn't meet the required number of signatures.
Under PNG law a motion must have 11 signatures to be heard, but Mr Kelola said the opposition motion only had nine after two signatures were ruled invalid.
"Morobe governor Kelly Naru, who initially signed before, did not sign this time and the MP for Vanimo Green, Belden Namah, has been deemed as suspended so his signature was not counted."
Aide Ganasi has now referred Mr Basil to parliament's privileges committee for investigation for because of the unauthorised signatures.
The move is likely to anger the opposition and its leader, Don Polye, who also tried to oust Mr O'Neill in a similar motion that was rejected last year.
Earlier on Thursday, Mr Polye said that all the motion's signatures were in order and that there should not be any excuses to prevent the motion being tested on the floor of parliament.