Elections in Papua New Guinea
Encyclopedia
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 government
s.
s. 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.
.
Election
An election is a formal decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy operates since the 17th century. Elections may fill offices in the legislature, sometimes in the...
and election results in Papua New Guinea
Politics of Papua New Guinea
The politics of Papua New Guinea takes place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic monarchy within the Commonwealth of Nations, whereby the Prime Minister is the head of government and of a multi-party system. Papua New Guinea is an independent country and Commonwealth Realm....
.
Papua New Guinea elects on national level a legislature
Legislature
A legislature is a kind of deliberative assembly with the power to pass, amend, and repeal laws. The law created by a legislature is called legislation or statutory law. In addition to enacting laws, legislatures usually have exclusive authority to raise or lower taxes and adopt the budget and...
. The National Parliament
National Parliament of Papua New Guinea
The National Parliament of Papua New Guinea is the unicameral national legislature in Papua New Guinea. It was first created in 1964 as the House of Assembly of Papua and New Guinea, but gained its current name with the granting of independence in 1975....
has 109 members, elected for a five year term in single-seat constituencies.
Papua New Guinea has a multi-party system, with numerous parties
Political Parties
Political Parties: A Sociological Study of the Oligarchical Tendencies of Modern Democracy is a book by sociologist Robert Michels, published in 1911 , and first introducing the concept of iron law of oligarchy...
in which no one party often has a chance of gaining power alone, and parties
Political Parties
Political Parties: A Sociological Study of the Oligarchical Tendencies of Modern Democracy is a book by sociologist Robert Michels, published in 1911 , and first introducing the concept of iron law of oligarchy...
must work with each other to form coalition government
Coalition government
A coalition government is a cabinet of a parliamentary government in which several political parties cooperate. The usual reason given for this arrangement is that no party on its own can achieve a majority in the parliament...
s.
Electorates
Members of Parliament represent the 109 single-member electorateElectoral district
An electoral district is a distinct territorial subdivision for holding a separate election for one or more seats in a legislative body...
s. The 19 provinces
Provinces of Papua New Guinea
The provinces of Papua New Guinea are the primary administrative divisions of the country. Provincial governments are branches of the national government– Papua New Guinea is not a federation of 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
Carol Kidu
Dame Carol Kidu, Lady Kidu, DBE is an Australian-born Papua New Guinean politician. She is the only current female member of Parliament, and served as Minister for Community Development under Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare from 2002 to 2011...
, 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.
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 votingPreferential voting
Preferential voting is a type of ballot structure used in several electoral systems in which voters rank candidates in order of relative preference. For example, the voter may select their first choice as '1', their second preference a '2', and so on...
.