Only two of Papua New Guinea’s general elections — in 1992 and 1997 — have had some semblance of credibility since the country’s independence in 1975, says a political analyst.

Speaking at a seminar in Port Moresby, Dr Joe Ketan, general manager of Divine University’s business and research arm Diwai Pacific Ltd, gave an overview of the country’s electoral governance, saying it was the worst when it comes to forming a new government.

“The country’s election processes are intact. However, the system is being hijacked,” he said.

• READ MORE: Other PNG election reports

“The state-owned enterprises are struggling, many essential services have collapsed, and the security agencies of Royal PNG Constabulary, PNG Defence Force, PNG Correctional Service and National Intelligence Organisation have all lost integrity with having lack of credibility in upcoming elections in June.

Dr Ketan, formerly head of the Department of PNG Studies and International Relations at DWU, said: “We have a terrible input process in the country [over] how we bring in our leaders into Parliament and the output is really bad.

“The security agencies lack discipline, have a low morality, and have issues with funding. While we look into the future, the government will repeat history.

Extra steps needed
“We need to take extra steps to ensure that the 2022 election is credible because with the last six terms of elections only two since independence have had some resemblance of credibility — in 1992 and 1997,” he said.

“In 2007 and 2012 it was equally bad with political instability between both former prime ministers Peter O’Neill and Sir Michael Somare.”

Institute of National Affairs executive director Paul Barker raised concerns about the common roll having not been updated from several years ago.

Barker said there was no proper data of eligible voters and current population and the government had done nothing about the issue.

Funding short by K362m
Meanwhile, Miriam Zarriga reports that with just nine days to go before the issue of 118 election writs on April 28, the government has yet to release K362 million (NZ$151 million) of the Electoral Commission’s K462 million (NZ$193 million) funding for the election costs.

Documents obtained by the Post-Courier show that the Department of Treasury has released a total of about K287.6 million ($120 million) to only seven agencies.

These payments are as follows;

– Electoral Commission: K100 million paid; K362 million outstanding;
– Police: K111 million paid; K43 million outstanding;
– PNG Defence Force: K50 million paid; K22.8 million outstanding;
– Correctional Service: K11.6 million paid; K42.4 million outstanding;
Other departments;
– National Broadcasting Corporation: K10 million;
– Department of Justice and Attorney General: K2.5 million; and,
– Ombudsman Commission: K2.5 million.

The National Intelligence Organisation (NIO), Registry of Political Parties, Office of Security Co-ordination and Assessment (OSCA) have yet to receive their funding.

Marjorie Finkeo is a PNG Post-Courier reporter. Republished with permission.

Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama’s FijiFirst party has triumphed in the general election and will govern for a second four-year term after winning most votes

FFP polled 227,241 votes – just over half the total votes – followed by the Social Democratic Liberal Party (SODELPA) in second place with 181,072 votes (39.85 percent) while the National Federation Party (NFP) came third with 33,515 votes (7.38 percent).

SODELPA and NFP will again form the opposition for another four years.

Other parties gained less than the 5 percent threshold needed to gain seats in the 51-seat Parliament.

Wansolwara News reported earlier that it was understood that after the official handover of results from the Fiji Elections Office, the Electoral Commission would announce the allocation of seats in Parliament before the Writ of Election would be presented to President Jioji Konrote later today.

By Quintina Naime in Port Moresby

The complete polling schedule for Papua New Guinea’s 2017 National Elections will be released at the end of next week.

PNG Electoral Commissioner Patilias Gamato said the polling schedule for the five-yearly elections had yet to be finalised. He would sign off and have it gazetted and released.

The polling schedule will include the place and dates of polling at different venues in the electorates across the country so people know exactly where to go and vote.

The issue of writs today indicated the start of nominations and an eight-week campaign period.

The nomination period is seven days from today, and the campaign period ends on June 8.

The polling period is for 14 days starting on June 24. A two-week counting period is due to start on July 9 and the writs must be returned by July 24.

PNG’s Governor-General, Bob Dadae was due to sign and issue the writs at Government House in Port Moresby.

K1000 nomination fee
Candidates can pay a nomination fee of K1000 (NZ$448) into the electoral commission trust account.

Gamato said they must produce the deposit slip of the payment as evidence so that the Returning Officer can receive their nominations.

The intending candidates have completed a candidate bio data form which gave an indication of the total number of candidates contesting this election.

It also projected how many candidates would be in one electorate so that the PNGEC can prepare the candidate posters.

“We cannot allocate the boxes until nominations are closed.

“After the nominations are closed on April 27, the returning officer of both the provincial and open seat will do a draw and will pick candidates to allocate a number to each one,” Gamato said.

“Once the numbers are allocated they will then give us that information and the photographs of the candidates for us to print the posters.”

Gamato said that the printing of posters would be done in the country and the commission had identified various print companies that would start printing once nominations closed.

Quintina Naime is a reporter with Loop PNG.

• Sir Michael Somare: ‘We must make the right choice on PNG’