Elections in Papua New Guinea

Elections in Papua New Guinea gives information on election and election results in Papua New Guinea.

Papua New Guinea elects on national level a legislature. The National Parliament has 109 members, elected for a five year term in single-seat constituencies.

Papua New Guinea has a multi-party system, with numerous parties in which no one party often has a chance of gaining power alone, and parties must work with each other to form coalition governments.

Electorates

Members of Parliament represent the 109 single-member electorates. The 19 provinces and the National Capital District each elect a provincial member. Additionally there are 89 local ("Open") electorates, of which three are in the National Capital District and 86 are in the provinces, with boundaries of the latter corresponding directly to administrative districts.

The Electoral Boundaries Commission, reporting in February 2006, suggested an additional 26 Open electorates be created. Legally, electoral boundaries must be reviewed every ten years, but due to political instability, no review occurred for 30 years. The future of the provincial electorates is under debate.

Lady Carol Kidu, after being elected as the only female Member of Parliament in the 2007 general election, called for seats to be reserved for women to improve the representation of women in Parliament. She suggested that the 20 provincial seats could be reserved for women by the 2012 election. [ cite news|publisher= [http://www.smh.com.au/ The Sydney Morning Herald] |url=http://www.smh.com.au/news/WORLD/PNG-MP-wants-dedicated-seats-for-women/2007/07/23/1185043003625.html |title=PNG MP wants dedicated seats for women|accessdate=2007-07-25 ]

Latest elections

Parliamentary elections were held from 30 June 2007 to 10 July 2007. Vote counting is still being done. For the first time, the election did not use first past the post (which has in the past resulted in a very volatile political system, with the election of a candidate being largely a matter of chance due to the large number of candidates), but rather limited preferential voting.

Past elections

ee also

* Electoral calendar
* Electoral system

External links

* [http://www.pngec.gov.pg/ PNG Electoral Commission]
* [http://psephos.adam-carr.net/countries/p/papuanewguinea/ Adam Carr's Election Archive]

References