Blackout disrupts Parliament: DPP MPs boycott ‘way forward’ session

Power failure on Friday afyernoon  disrupted business in the National Assembly which was meeting in an extra time to avert a deep Constitutional crisis following Thursday’s shooting down of a constitutional amendment to have a provision for a run-off in case no presidential candidate garners over 50 percent of the total votes cast.

However, legislators from the  governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)  boycotted the proceedings in the afternoon.

There were more than 15 legislators on the government side and opposition expressed their disappointment over the boycott.

The outage forced Speaker of parliament Catherine Gotani Hara to adjourn for a health break.

During the outage, opposition legislators were overheard describing the blackout as “charecteristics of the Democratic Progressive Party [DPP]” administration.

When power was restored, the House met but a motion was moved to adjourn the proceedings to Monday.