CIP must front up and explain confusion in Avatiu

The general public can be excused for being a little confused at the approach being taken by the Cook Islands Party (CIP) in naming their candidates for the election.
There appear to be two distinct processes at work.
On the one hand there is the transparent process where a committee is elected and nominations called.
The public witnessed this in the case of Tupapa and Matavera for example. Democracy at work.
However, a different process appears to have been used in Murienua and Avatiu.
In Murienua, prospective nominee Andre Tapena did not even get the opportunity to put his name forward. The CIP executive has looked into his complaint and the CIP central executive has decided it is a matter for the local committee to resolve.
In Avatiu, we read the announcement in the CI News on Friday morning that Peto Nicholas has been named the CIP candidate and that there were no other nominees. Not surprising because no-one can recall seeing any public notice calling for nominees. Yet the CI News on Thursday did have a public notice placed by CIP General Secretary Temu Okotai, advising the public of a meeting to take place on Tuesday 21 June to form a committee and call for nominations.
It has been publicly known for some time that John Henry planned to submit his name as a nominee for the CIP. Now Henry wants to know when was the meeting held which confirmed Nicholas as the nominee, where was that meeting held and who attended. Good questions indeed.
It was reported to the Times that Tom Marsters (the CIP’s Murienua candidate) was present at that meeting and congratulated Nicholas. It has also been reported to the Times that Nicholas had considered leaving the CIP to stand as an Independent if he did not gain the nomination.
The Times is not going to bother wasting its time chasing after those involved for comment as it is now clearly over to them to stop sweeping the hard questions under the mat and do the right thing which is to front up to the public and explain what is going on!

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