Pacific Magazine > Magazine > August 30, 2007

Papua New Guinea

Last Chance Or Best Chance?

What's At Stake After PNG's Election

By Alex Rheeney, PORT MORESBY. Photos Jocelyn Carlin.

People from Mendi gather in the streets to listen to progressive results from the counting of ballots during the 2007 PNG general election.

It’s conventional wisdom that the turnover of elected parliamentarians from election to election is high in Papua New Guinea. In the 2002 elections, 80 of the 109 incumbents lost their seats. While it is still too early to give the corresponding number for this year, the struggle for the prime ministership featured two familiar names, “The Chief”—incumbent Sir Michael Somare—and another former chief executive, Sir Julius Chan.

There were a few surprise defeats, including former Foreign Minister Sir Rabbie Namaliu, beaten by independent Patrick Tammur. It brought to an end a long political career which began in 1982, ironically at the expense of Tammur’s father, also Patrick, who lost his seat to Namaliu.

Candidate for the Peoples Democratic Movement Miria Ikupu and his wife cast their votes at the polling booth at Hanuabada, National Capital District.

There was also disappointment for those advocating a bigger presence of women in PNG’s Parliament. Once again, Lady Carol Kidu is the only female MP in Parliament, despite close to 100 women standing in various electorates, demonstrating there is still a long way to go towards gender equity.

Logistically the elections were hampered by poor weather, which extended polling, and continuing problems with the electoral roll. Election officials made a big effort to sort out the roll before polling, with limited success. Whole villages reported being left off the roll, while multiple names and entries continued. Many people were also reportedly confused about the new “limited preference vote” system, which replaced the “first past the post” system.

But the battle that matters now is the jostling to form coalitions and so form a stable government. At press time, former Prime Ministers Sir Mekere Morauta and Bart Philemon of the PNG and New Generation Parties, respectively, had agreed to back Peoples Progress Party leader Sir Julius Chan for the prime ministership. Sir Julius has returned to power after a 10-year absence from national politics.
 

Defense Force soldiers escort a vehicle carrying ballot boxes from the police station to the tabulating area.

But Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare’s National Alliance Party appeared to have the upper hand, getting the (former opposition) Peoples National Congress and Peoples Party leaders on board.

While politics in PNG is fluid and unpredictable,  the challenges ahead for Papua New Guinea’s incoming prime minister are numerous and the same, regardless of who is in the job. The country’s economic performance has been impressive, with growth projections at 4.25 percent for 2008, mainly due to windfall revenues from relatively high commodity prices. Mining, agriculture and construction revenues are all expected to grow.

Sir Mekere Morauta, prime minister from 1999-2002, with supporters after regaining his Moresby seat. He indicated he would back former PM Sir Julius Chan for the prime ministership.

A budget surplus of PGK229.1 million (US$79.5 million) or 1.3 percent of GDP is forecast for 2008. However, investing the proceeds of these windfall gains for longer term benefit is still a challenge. Agricultural success is limited to oil palm and cocoa, and needs to be broadened not only for deeper economic growth, but for the sake of the 87 percent of Papua New Guineans who live and work in rural areas.


Infrastructure is a mess and deteriorating. The attitude to privatization of some sectors, like mobile phone communications, is still unclear, contradictory and confusing, to the detriment of PNG’s reputation to investors. And its foreign relationships—the troubled one with Canberra and the burgeoning ones with Asian capitals—are still in a delicate state.


Primary health care and education is in a pitiful state—PNG ranks last among Asian Development Bank’s Pacific developing member countries on both the Human Development Index and the Human Poverty Index of the United Nations. And there is still a widespread perception of corruption, with an Ombudsman’s office without the teeth to truly act on complaints and investigations.So while the opportunities are immense, so are the challenges.

Top: Incumbent MP Lady Carol Kidu, still the only woman in PNG’s parliament, celebrates with her Pari village constituents after retaining her Moresby South seat. Above: Young girls dance during the Justin Tcakchenko election rally in Joyce Bay, one of them sporting the opposition candidate’s promotional T-shirt.

For Sir Michael on the verge of surely his last term in office, to address some of these would be a chance to leave a legacy as not only Papua New Guinea’s founding father, but also one who could make Papua New Guinea truly prosperous in independence.