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Papua New Guinea 2012 election nearing closure



The Papua New Guinea Electoral Commissioner, Andrew Trawen, announced on July 26 that the extension date for the Return of Writs for the 2012 National General Elections to his Excellency the Governor General is Wednesday August 1. This is to enable the remaining electorates to complete their counting and declare their results. To date, the total number of writs returned to the PNG Electoral Commission is 39 out of 72 seats declared (http://www.pngec.gov.pg).

The Electoral Commissioner expects that, within this time, the political party that has won the majority of seats will form the next government of Papua New Guinea. Parliament will be recalled to form a new government seven days after the return of writs. PNG has a multi-party system and parties must work with each other to form a coalition government.

Papua New Guinea is a constitutional monarchy with Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II as the Head of State, represented in the country by a Governor General (which is the same system as Australia). There are three levels of government: national, provincial, and local. The National Parliament is a 109-member unicameral legislature elected for five years. Parliament comprises 89 single-member electorates and 20 provincial electorates (each of the 19 provinces and the National Capital District).

The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) states that there is typically a high turnover of parliamentarians at general elections, with no single party winning enough seats to form a government in its own right. Therefore they must form a coalition government. The main parties are the National Alliance (NA), PNG Party, People’s Party (PP), Triumph Heritage Empowerment Party (THEP), United Resources Party (URP), People’s National Congress (PNC), People’s Progress Party (PPP), Coalition for Reform Party (CFRP), Melanesian Liberal Party (MLP), People’s United Assembly Party (PUAP), and the Social Democratic Party (SDP).

Currently, the People’s National Congress is leading the polls with 22 declared candidates (currently second is THEP with 8 declared candidates).

The Post-Courier reported on July 26 that caretaker Prime Minister Peter O’Neill declared that a new government is now in place, claiming that he has over 56 members (22 from his People’s National Congress party and the rest from coalition partners). The follows the historic occasion on Tuesday July 24 when three former prime ministers (Sir Michael Somare, Sir Julius Chan, and Mr Paias Wingti) backed O’Neill as prime minister (http://www.postcourier.com.pg/20120726/thhome.htm).

To date, PNG’s two female Members of Parliament (MP) will join 28 other newly-elected MPs to take their seats when Parliament convenes for its inaugural 2012-2017 session in two weeks, reports the Post-Courier. Of these, up to 22 candidates may be first-timers (they are currently leading in their respective seats) and 5 former MPs who were defeated in 2002 or 2007 may return to Parliament in 2012.

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