National Parliament of Papua New Guinea
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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 the Papua and New Guinea, but gained its current name with the granting of independence in 1975.
The 109 members of the parliament all serve five-year terms. 89 members are elected from single-member electorates, which are sometimes referred to as "seats" but are officially known as constituencies. The remaining 20 are elected from provinces and the national capital district in Port Moresby. From 1964 until 1977 an Optional Preferential Voting System was used. The first past the post system has been used since 1977 to elect members, but this will change from the next election in 2007, due to electoral reforms introduced by former Prime Minister Mekere Morauta which replaced the old system with the Limited Preferential Vote. There has also been a recent proposal to abolish the provincial electorates, though this has been somewhat contentious and its future is unclear.
As in other Commonwealth Realms, the party or coalition with the most seats in the parliament is invited by the Governor-General to form government, and their leader subsequently becomes Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, with the Prime Minister then appointing his cabinet from fellow members of the parliament.
Papua New Guinea has a fractious political culture and no party in the history of the parliament has yet won majority government. This has meant that negotiations between several parties have been necessary for governments to be formed. New governments are protected by law from votes of no confidence for the first 18 months of their term and in the last 12 months before a national election. More recently, in a move aimed at further minimising no-confidence motions, then-Prime Minister Mekere Morauta introduced changes that prevented members of the government of the day from voting in favour of such a motion.
There is universal franchise for all citizens over the age of 18, although voting is not compulsory.
[edit] Latest election
| Parties | Votes | % | Seats |
|---|---|---|---|
| National Alliance Party | . | 19 | |
| People's Democratic Movement | . | 13 | |
| People's Progress Party | . | 8 | |
| Papua and Niugini Union Pati | . | 6 | |
| People's Action Party | . | 5 | |
| People's Labour Party | . | 4 | |
| Christian Democratic Party | . | 3 | |
| Melanesian Alliance Party | . | 3 | |
| Papua New Guinea National Party | . | 3 | |
| United Party | . | 3 | |
| Nation Transformation Party | . | 2 | |
| Pan Melanesian Congress Party | . | 2 | |
| People's National Congress Party | . | 2 | |
| Pipol First Party | . | 2 | |
| Rural Pipol's Pati | . | 2 | |
| "Parties" electing 1 MP each | . | 9 | |
| Self-described Independents | . | 17 | |
| Vacant pending by-elections | . | 6 | |
| Total (turnout %) | 109' | ||
| Source: Adam Carr's Electoral Archive. Adam Carr says about the party system: Papua New Guinea has no real party system and most Members of Parliament function as independents, although they give themselves various party labels. This tendency is reinforced by the electoral system, which combines first-past-the-post voting in single-member constituencies with large numbers of candidacies, making election to the House largely a matter of chance. | |||
